


Sundown

by arboribus



Series: Desolate [1]
Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game), Life Is Strange 2 (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, Female Reader, Supernatural Elements
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-13
Updated: 2020-09-04
Packaged: 2021-02-25 23:00:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 13
Words: 46,502
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21783325
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arboribus/pseuds/arboribus
Summary: it's just one of the rules of life, you know? everything wrong eventually rights itself again.Updates every Friday.
Relationships: Maxine "Max" Caulfield/Chloe Price, Victoria Chase/Reader
Series: Desolate [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1569841
Comments: 6
Kudos: 49





	1. The New Kids..

**Author's Note:**

> As a foreword, this is basically a story that is just taking place in the LiS universe. A lot of characters will be original and a lot of the canon characters will most likely be OOC. That being said, despite the supernatural element I’m bringing into this, Max will not have her time powers because it wasn’t really relevant to the story that I want to tell. Characters from Life is Strange 2 will also make an appearance and they are completely AU when they eventually do come into the story.  
> As for the concept of werewolves in this story, I’m drawing from multiple places to build the specific characteristics. I’m pulling from Teen Wolf, The Twilight Series, and even certain aspects of the Omegaverse. Some of the characteristics are just things that I add in because it fits the story and makes it more cohesive. There’s also a lot of altering of existing characteristics that I pulled from other sources.  
> This is also the first fic that I’ve ever done that is a reader insert/second-person POV OC. So, please feel free to leave a comment with constructive criticism because I enjoy this story a lot and I want to do my best on it.

Blackwell Academy. A good school in a backwater town where everyone knew everyone else’s name and no one had any secrets worth protecting. In hindsight, you should have known something was bound to go wrong. Life since arriving in Arcadia Bay had felt too easy before this, and you really shouldn’t have been surprised at the turn of events. Or that you  _ knew  _ them. Your kind called them The Twins. A very creative name for a pair of siblings that are, in fact, twins. You knew the story, every wolf on the coast did. They were orphans, their parents had been killed in an attack, and now they were hunters. You’d crossed them in California once, near San Diego, but they never saw your human form and you decided not to take the chance of showing them. But now they were here, like they followed your scent all the way to Oregon. Why else would they stop in a town that wasn’t even on most maps?

Despite your interest in everything science-y, it’s hard to focus when there’s a hunter sitting two seats forward and just to the right, only about six feet away. You remember the scent well enough to know this is the sister. You try to recall the memory of that night, but all of it’s blurry. You think her name is Anna, but you can’t be sure. At least not until Ms. Grant calls out ‘Anna Stokes’ while looking around the classroom expectantly. The last name makes the memory a bit clearer. Anna and Conner Stokes. The ones who favored bow and arrows the most. They hunted for sport. Revenge being executed in the name of protecting humans. You didn’t understand it. You knew half of what they felt, at least. You were fourteen when everything happened.

* * *

_ You woke up because of the noise.  _ It’s just the wind,  _ you thought. Except the wind didn’t walk or growl and it definitely wasn’t supposed to cast a shadow on the side of the tent. The full moon didn’t help to hide the outline of whatever it was that was outside.  _

_ You rolled onto your back, trying not to make too much noise. Your efforts proved worthless when the sound of the sleeping bag moving echoed as a growl. Panic set in before it stopped, and you suddenly regretted pushing your parents into letting you sleep in a separate tent. The eyes glowed when the thing turned to look at you, or you thought it was looking at you. It was hard to tell considering there was a very thin sheet of fabric separating you and  _ it.  _ When you heard another set of steps but the shadow you were watching didn’t move, you reluctantly turned to see a second shadow dancing closer to the other tent. You wanted to scream, except the words died in your throat and your lungs refused to expand enough to even breathe properly.  _

_ Another growl. That’s when you heard the screaming. You knew it was your mom, and then it was your dad. You felt yourself moving, but the memory of what happened after that is in pieces. You can’t see it, but you can feel the breath. You can practically feel it’s anger, but your vision is gone. When it comes back, you’re in the hospital. _

_ “Welcome back,” you hear it, and your name in a whisper, but you can’t bring yourself to actually look at the doctor. He’s smiling, you can feel it. It’s the sad smile. The pity one, and it kind of feels like there’s something sitting on your chest. You find the courage to look down in what feels like a year later to find out nothing’s on you, but around you. There’s bandages covering your entire chest, wires poking out from under them. It hurts.  _

_ “It hurts,” your voice is hoarse, like you haven’t used it lately.  _

_ “You’ve been through a lot.” The doctor turns around and reaches towards a cart, coming around to face you with an IV bag with a scribbled ‘M’ labeling it. He hangs it up, attaches the tube in the back of your hand to the new bag. “This should help, but give it a minute, okay?” _

_ The warmth starts in your hand and goes up your arm, spreading to your chest just when everything seems to go numb. You relax, and everything becomes blurry and your head feels like it’s underwater. _

_ “Better?” The doctor asks. You nod, closing your eyes again. It takes a few minutes, but you fall back asleep. The next time you wake up there’s a nurse instead of the doctor and she’s just watching you.  _

_ “Parents?” You mumble, hoping she understands your questions through the lack of words. The nurse stands from her chair and comes to the side of the bed, a comforting hand laying on your arm. You can see it written on her face.  _

_ Bad news has a distinct look, and you’ve perfected seeing it over the years. _

_ Your father was dead, his injuries were too extensive and help arrived too late. Your mother was hurt. The first time they let you see her you couldn’t help but notice that she looked like a shell of who she was supposed to be. But she was alive. After a week in the hospital, you got better and none of the doctors could figure out why. Your wounds started healing and were gone within hours and you got stronger in a matter of a day, throwing the hospital staff into a tailspin. They tried to figure out how you healed so quick, and spent hours surrounding your bed going over everything they’d done since you were brought in. When your mother was better, you went home. Except the small house in the middle of Midtown felt too empty with only you and your mom there. Your father was buried in a cemetery in Queens a week later. _

_ Your first phase was a week later. _

* * *

It wasn’t until you heard your name being called that you focused back on class. 

“Sorry, what?” 

“I said, can you please tell me the definition of quantum mechanics?” Ms. Grant repeated, looking concerned rather than annoyed with your inability to pay attention today. 

“It’s the description of motion on atomic and subatomic scales.”

“Thank you.” You tuned out the rest of what Ms. Grant was saying, going back to pointedly glaring a hole in the back of Anna’s head. If she could feel you staring, she didn’t show it. Max Caulfield nudged you, your attention turning to the left to see her questioning look. It was becoming annoying, how everyone knew you loved science. Now it was drawing attention. You answered her with a shrug. Max was one of the first people you met since getting to Blackwell. It was hard not to, honestly. Despite the effort to not get to know anyone, Max had somehow filtered through the very definition of ‘everyone.’ Kate was next. You immediately felt protective, which turned out to be a good thing since the resident bully of Blackwell targeted her. With Max came Chloe, who became your best friend in theory. So for the first month you spent at the school, life was okay. Kind of.

Your mom was still in New York and you only left to get away from everything. That didn’t last long. In the month you’ve spent in Arcadia Bay, you already have a pack. If you weren’t an alpha, it wouldn’t be so much of a problem, except being an alpha is kind of like being a parent and all your children are the same age as you. Aside from your pack, you only had three friends, and none of them knew what you were. 

The class was over before you zoned back into the real world and the bell made your flinch. Part of the problem with being a werewolf, the supernatural hearing abilities can be a bitch sometimes. The heightened sense of smell was even worse. Teenagers were decidedly always horny, and it made you wrinkle your nose whenever you walked past a group of football players. You walked right into the metaphorical fog of teenage hormones as you left the classroom, moving down the hall towards your locker. Reed Barrett, another student and the second member of your pack, came up to you as you were putting your chemistry book away. The scent of fear he wore was almost enough to pique your instincts. 

“You saw them, right?” Reed asked.

“I saw them. One’s in my chemistry class.”

“And?

“And what?”

“What are we gonna do?” You can feel yourself getting annoyed by the second. Panic was the last thing you needed to worry about.

“Nothing.”

“Nothing?”

“I’m pretty sure that’s what I said, and even if that wasn’t what I said, the hallway isn’t the place to talk about it. We’ll go to Dylan’s later and talk about it then.” Your voice carried a sense of authority and Reed backed off for the moment. You could still smell the fear on him so you projected slightly to calm him down, releasing a breath of relief when it worked. “Just go to class. Act like nothing's wrong because nothing is wrong.” Reed accepted that and mumbled a goodbye before walking away. You closed your locker and leaned against the cold metal, sighing before fishing your phone out of your pocket and texting Dylan. He was the first wolf to follow you. You found him in the woods one day during your second week in Arcadia Bay. You went hunting and smelled the blood and you planned on leaving him there until you recognized the distinct scent of another wolf. For whatever reason, you helped him. Took him home, made sure he was okay and planned to leave it at that. And then he made a point of finding you by the beach one day and pretty much declared his intention to follow you. Again, life would be so much simpler if you weren’t an alpha. 

[ **Dyl. 12:46PM** ]: not working today so come over whenever 

[ **Me. 12:47PM** ]: do me a favor and text everyone else reed knows already but the other two dont

[ **Dyl. 12:47PM** ]: sure thing see u later

You put your phone away and scanned the hallway, your gaze catching the twins where they stood by the photography classroom. Shaking your head, you turned and walked towards the entrance to the building, catching Reed on his way out of the bathroom by the arm. 

“Go wait for me in the parking lot. I’m gonna grab Morgan and we’ll pick Israel up and then head over to Dylan’s,” you whispered, walking with him towards the front doors before breaking off to head towards the photography classroom. You knew Morgan would be there, considering she was at Blackwell for photography. You’d met her through Max, both of them photography prodigies. 

Picking up Morgan’s scent was easy enough, even through the haze of the rest of the students. You made a face as you walked past a group of jocks, internally gagging. You were grateful when you finally made it to the classroom, although you narrowly avoiding walking straight into Conner and Anna as they came out. 

“Hey, let’s go,” you said when you found Morgan, tapping her on the back of the head to get her attention. 

“About --” she started, turning around to face you before standing and gathering her things.

“Yeah, about that. Reed’s waiting for us and Dylan already knows we’re coming.”

Morgan nodded and moved to follow you out, both of you walking faster when you passed the twins and Mr. Jefferson. He pointedly looked at Morgan but she ignored his gaze and kept on your heels. You were outside by the time the bell rang and the students began filtering into classrooms, halfway to the parking lot when Morgan spoke again.

“They’re both here,” she commented.

“I know. That’s why we’re going to Dylan’s. Reed was freaking out earlier.”

“Doesn’t he always?”

“You know I can hear you, right?” Reed asked when you approached your car. It was a fairly new Jeep, a gift from your mother for getting into Blackwell on a scholarship. You were hesitant to accept it, there’s no way she could afford something like this but you were thankful for it. It was handy in situations like these. 

“Yeah, yeah. Stop acting like you don’t already know what I think of you,” Morgan shot back, sarcasm in her voice but a smile on her face.

“Kids, stop arguing and get in the car,” you said with a sigh, pulling your keys out of your pocket.

“She started it,” you heard Reed mumble, smiling when he caught your gaze before getting into the Jeep.

“That’s what you say every time, Reed. Eventually you’re gonna have to come up with something new,” within the next minute you were pulling out of the parking lot, heading towards the Two Whales. You knew your fourth pack member was working his shift there today. Israel Mariano was the last wolf to join you, he was the oldest in the pack and too quiet for his own good. He spent most of his life without a pack and almost left Arcadia Bay when you arrived. He was quick to notice what you were and who the three wolves who’d already joined you were. Israel came to you once, asking for help with something, and ended up becoming part of the pack by the end of it. 

“Someone text Iz and let him know we’re coming to get him,” you said to both wolves in the car, watching Morgan get her phone in your peripherals.

You stopped in front of the diner five minutes later, Israel already waiting for you at the entrance to the parking lot. You set off again once he was inside, blowing out a breath as you headed for Dylan’s house.

“Two hunters showed up at Blackwell today,” you announced, shifting your gaze to the rearview mirror to watch Israel. “The Twins.”

That got his attention. He might have been a lone wolf up until you showed up, but he was still well-versed in what was happening in the supernatural world. You heard him sigh. Or maybe it was Reed. No one really talked after that, the rest of the trip silent.

* * *

“That’s bullshit,” Dylan was almost shouting, and you glared at the way he said your name. “You really believe their here by coincidence? Why the hell would they decide to settle down in Arcadia Bay? This place is as off the map as off the map can get.”

“Well, I’m not suggesting we go fuckin’ ask,” you said, trying to stay calm.

“You know the stories. They’re here because they’re running from something or because they’re chasing something.”

“Maybe they gave up the hunting thing,” Reed suggested. Said suggestion was met with glares from you and the other three members.

“Yeah, I’m sure they gave up the whole torturing werewolves thing. Seems like such a drag,” you sat in a recliner as you spoke, eyes narrowing in a mixture of disbelief and disappointment as you watched Reed. Dylan seemed like he was calming down but you could still recognize the stench of anger rolling off him in waves. Morgan was quiet for her part, sitting on one end of the couch across from you with Reed on the other end. Israel was lingering around but was now leaning against the couch where the younger members sat. Dylan was still pacing, his eyebrows furrowed in thought.

“Look, we’re gonna be fine. It’s not like we go out holding up a fucking sign saying we’re werewolves. We do what we’ve been doing: lay low. Who knows why they’re here? We can sit here and ask questions but that’s just gonna get us on their radar,” Morgan shrugged when she was finished, pulling her legs onto the couch and leaning against the armrest. 

“Either way, it’s unsettling. If they’re running from something, that ‘something’ is eventually gonna show up and we’ll somehow be pulled into it because I doubt they’d run from another hunter, so it has to be something that’ll know what we are. If they’re chasing something, that’s  _ really _ unsettling because we’re the only pack this far north except for the Diaz brothers in Seattle and they enrolled at Blackwell, so they plan on being here for a while,” Dylan said, sounding a lot calmer than he did even five minutes ago. 

“And no one knows what we are except for the people in this room,” you said like it was the most obvious thing in the world, because it was the most obvious thing in the world. “As far as we know, they don’t know there’s even a pack in Arcadia Bay. It’s not like it’s the most suspicious thing in the world, California isn’t on the other side of the country. The only thing that’s gonna make them think there is a pack here is everyone panicking and acting like they’ve got something to hide.”

Nobody spoke after you did but they were all staring, you could almost see the metaphorical gears in their heads turning. 

“She’s right,” Israel was the first to break the silence, nodding towards you but looking between everyone else. “And it’s not a secret that all of us are friends, either, so it’ll end up drawing more attention if we all the sudden never talk anymore. We just need to keep going like we have been. The only thing we’re gonna have to change is where we hunt. We’ll have to go farther north so there’s no chance of getting seen if the twins decide to go hunting.” 

You leaned forward in your chair, resting your elbows against your knees. Your pack usually hunted once or twice a month since the phase could be controlled and you weren’t restricted just to the night of the full moon, although you still got irritable and rash on those particular days. 

You mumbled an agreement, prompting Morgan and Reed to speak theirs. Dylan was the last one to agree, dropping himself into a chair to your left before telling Iz he was right.

“Siempre estoy en lo correcto,” Iz boasted. 

“English, please?” you heard Morgan ask as you stood, moving into the kitchen with a smile. Just like that, everything was back to normal. Almost.

“You really think this is gonna end up being fine?” Dylan asked and you shrugged, focusing on getting cans of soda for everyone before turning around to face him. He took a step forward and took one of the cans for himself as you set them down on the counter, turning and leaning against it.

“If it was any other hunter? Sure. We’re not hurting anyone and we only hunt animals, if it was anyone but the twins, they’d leave us alone but keep an eye on us. You know the stories, though,” you opened one of the cans yourself, tuning out the sound of Dylan’s Playstation turning on and good-natured arguing happening in the background. 

“I don’t know your story.”

“Yeah,” was all you responded with, shrugging again. You never told them how you were turned or about your encounter with the twins in California. As far as your pack knew, you came straight from New York. 

“Yeah? Dude, come on. You never tell us anything.” 

Everyone in the pack knew that Dylan was kind of your right-hand man when you needed him to be. Nothing was official but it was noticeable how the other members respected him more than each other. You decided a long time ago that you hated pack hierarchies. “I tell you enough.”

Dylan didn’t say anything, but he gave you a look. 

“I crossed them when they were still in California,” you admitted. “They didn’t see me. Or I don’t think they did, but I phased and they didn’t see me as me, you know. Last I heard about them was a few months ago, from a pack by San Francisco.”

“You think they’re just making their way up the coast?”

“Something like that. I know, you’re gonna ask why they enrolled at Blackwell. Everyone in this world has to keep a cover. They’re eighteen so being in school is still part of that cover.” 

Dylan nodded, a reluctant admittance that what you were saying made sense. He had always been the worrier of the pack, but it was a good thing. It kept everyone on their toes when he just kept repeating all the worst case scenarios. “You gonna call Sean and let him know?”

“At some point. I don’t really know if it’s worth letting him know now. I might wait until they leave and then just let them know there’s a chance they could show up in Seattle,” you ended with that, picking up the cans and moving back towards the living room. The three wolves currently arguing over who got to play who on Mario Kart couldn’t have been more oblivious to the conversation that just happened in the kitchen. You handed the cans over and claimed the chair you were in before, watching Dylan as he moved into the space out of the corner of your eye. 

A part of you hated being a wolf, hated what it meant to be an alpha and a pack and have responsibility for a group of people. You hated how becoming what you were took a parent dying and ended in moving across the country and dealing with hunters and emotions and anger. But you loved it, because you have a family away from your actual family, and people you can count on and someone that has your back. It felt nice to be reminded of that once in a while, and as you sat there, watching Reed and Morgan argue over who got to play as Bowser and Israel trying not to smile and Dylan finally relaxing, you decided you didn’t hate it today.


	2. And the Old Ones

You were back in your dorm by midnight after saying your goodbyes to Dylan and Israel, the latter of the two announcing he was spending the night there. You briefly wondered what that meant and gave Dylan a knowing look that was very quickly brushed off. Reed was half asleep on the drive back and barely said a word between your car and the dorm building and Morgan was the last to leave, waving at you as she shuffled towards her own room. 

It was comforting to be back. Whoever said wolves were territorial were absolutely right, and you fell face-first onto your bed without even changing because it’d take too long and you were already tired. A vibration from your front pocket kept you up, as well as the two vibrations that followed, so you pulled your phone out and squinted at the screen.

**[Chloe. 12:07AM]** : yo

**[Chloe. 12:07AM]** : max told u me u ditched today

**[Chloe. 12:08AM]** : u good?

**[Me. 12:10AM]** : wasnt feelin it today 

**[Me. 12:10AM]** : u know how it is at blackwell

**[Chloe. 12:11AM]** : damn straight. fuckin bitches

You smiled at that and promptly dropped your phone on the floor and rolled over. Holding up a conversation about god knows what with Chloe wasn’t at the top of your to-do list right now. You were thinking again, which was a bad idea because every time you decided to think really hard you were back in the woods, back in a tent, back to screaming. You pushed it away, pressing your face into your pillow and eventually falling asleep. When you did, you dreamed of your father.

* * *

And then you were back in class and staring at the back of the other twin’s head instead of focusing on the board, where the teacher was trying to walk everyone through differential equations. Not having to pay attention was one of the perks to being a closet math nerd. The class went by excruciatingly slow and you internally thanked whatever cosmic being was controlling the universe when it was over. Max ran into you when you got to the hallway, busy flipping through a stack of polaroids in her hand. She literally ran into you, but failed to notice you were actually you.

“Max,” you said loudly.

“Wha-- Oh, hey,” she said, turning to face you but still focusing on the pictures until she groaned in frustration and shoved them roughly into her bag. You watched it happen, quirking a brow in question.

“What’d they do to you?”

"Not being good,” she explained, nodding to let you know to walk with her. You kept an easy pace with her, nudging her shoulder.

“Jefferson giving you a hard time again?”

“No, just.. I don’t know,” she sighed again, turning to leave the building and you spotted Chloe’s beat up truck on the side of the road. “I have an idea for the contest but it doesn’t feel like it’s good enough.”

“Did you ask Chloe?” 

“Yes, and she said what every girlfriend hopefully says when their girlfriend asks them if something they did looks good,” Max grinned as she spoke. You’ve noticed her getting more bold, from standing up to Victoria more to just carrying herself in a more confident way. 

“Of course she did, but it’s still probably good.”

“You don’t know anything about photography,” she said with a scoff, but she was still smiling. 

“I know a lot about photography. It’s just the normal stuff that normal people know and not all the little details that you camera freaks like to obsess over,” your tone was warm despite your words and Max laughed at them.

“We’re gonna get lunch at the Two Whales, you’re welcome to come but you’ll have to deal with Chloe,” she said it like she was annoyed but you didn’t have to know her to tell it was a lie, especially since in the next ten seconds she was wrapped around Chloe and about a foot off the ground.

“Hey, stranger!” Chloe practically yelled after putting Max down.

“I saw you, like, two days ago.”

Chloe tilted her head like she was thinking about and then shrugged. “Coming to lunch with us?” You nodded, putting a hand on both their shoulders and gently pushing them towards the truck.

“Yes, but that would mean actually getting in and going,” you grinned, watching Chloe let go of Max to circle around her truck, simultaneously flipping you the bird. You threw her your best smile and got into the passenger seat once Max was in, stuffing your bag on the floor between your legs.

The drive was only a few minutes and you zoned out for most of it, zoning back in when you fell into a booth at the diner. And once again, you really hated being able to hear  _ everything,  _ because Chloe was whispering something to Max that really gave  _ Fifty Shades of Grey  _ a run for its money. 

Chloe eventually stopped whispering when her mom showed up and took their orders but she was focused on you when Joyce left. “Whatcha been up to in the year since I’ve last seen you?”

“Two days,” you explained with a sigh. “And currently, the only thing I’m up to is watching you eye fuck your girlfriend.” That made Max cover her face with her hands, no doubt trying to hide the fact that she was blushing. Chloe just smiled her trademark smile, wiggling her eyebrows.

“Considering our current environment, it’s better than actually fucking her,” Chloe said, dramatically draping her arm over Max’s bent form because now the brunette had her face hiding behind her folded arms. 

“Stop,” it was muffled, but that was Max. “Please, before I spontaneously combust from embarrassment.” You and Chloe just laughed. You could tell Max was telling the truth just from her scent and you felt sorry for a moment.

“Stop torturing Max,” Joyce said when she brought the food out, pointedly looking at Chloe. You were laughing until her glare turned to you instead and you just looked down at your plate, hiding a smile behind the hand you rose to prop your chin up with. Joyce had started saying something else, but you busied yourself with your phone when you felt it vibrate in your pocket.

**[Reed. 1:24PM]** : thing 1 and thing 2 are asking abt you

You were in the middle of typing a response when the device in your hand buzzed again.

**[Morgan. 1:25PM]** : ignore reed. all they did was ask about the music program

**[Me. 1:25PM]** : whyd they ask u

**[Morgan. 1:26PM]** : saw us leaving the photography room together reeds just overreacting

You shook your head, tapping on the screen until the conversation with Morgan disappeared and Reed’s came up.

**[Me. 1:27PM]** : stop overreacting

“Well, if it isn’t Max and her burnout girlfriend,” you finally looked up from your phone, your gaze landing on Victoria Chase, who had both hands on the table. She was leaning over it, a smug smirk on her lips that was an often, but preferred, difference from her usual scowl. And then her eyes fell on you. “And the new kid, who sings about everything and hangs around the worst people in Arcadia Bay.”

“That’s where you’re wrong,” you started, producing a smile of your own. “I’m not hanging around you, am I?”

Victoria took great offense to that and you could smell her anger all the sudden. “Who the fuck do you think you are?” 

“Someone nicer than you,” you shot back, maintaining your calmness. “If it’s all the same, I’m pretty sure you were interrupting us and I’m  _ very _ sure that we would all appreciate it if you went back to wherever you came from.” You saw Chloe cover her smile with a hand as you looked away from Victoria, already over the conversation. You slid your phone off the table and put it back in your pocket before picking up a fork, pausing when Victoria only continued to glare at you and you thought that if looks could kill, she would’ve done worse than you saw the twins do.

“I know I didn’t stutter, so why are you still here?” You asked.

“Excuse me?” Victoria all but shrieked. 

“I asked you to leave. You didn’t. Now I’m asking why. Pretty simple, actually,” this time Chloe did laugh after you finished speaking and Victoria temporarily turned her glare to the taller girl. 

“Dude, you’re making yourself look like a dumbass,” she got out between bouts of laughter until Victoria abandoned the idea of glaring her into silence and trained her sights back on you. You tilted your head, dropping the fork and crossing your arms over your chest as you leaned back. 

“Fuck you,” the blonde snarled.

“In your dreams,” you answered, smiling just because you knew you won. 

“Ugh,” and with that, Victoria walked away and Chloe laughed even harder. Max just looked terrified. Chloe lifted her hand towards you and you extended your own to give her a high five. 

“Okay, back to our lunch,” you announced and picked the fork back up, actually beginning to eat now that you didn’t have someone glaring at you from two feet away. 

“She’s gonna be worse to all of us now,” Max spoke up, rubbing her temples like it would reverse time and keep the argument from happening. 

You only shrugged. “So what? The worst she’s gonna do is glare at us until she thinks she’s won.”

“Or,” Max began, drawing out the word, “she’s gonna break into our dorm rooms and kill us in our sleep.” 

“Eh,” you grunted. “Let her try.” 

“You do know she sneaks into my room already, right?”

“Lock your door.”

“I do!”

“Then how does she get in?”

Max narrowed her eyes when she realized what game was being played and started eating without responding. 

“Great, you made her mad and now I’m not gonna get laid tonight,” Chloe said between shoving food into her mouth.

“She’s not angry.”

“Yes, I am,” Max grumbled.

“No, you’re not.”

“Fine, I’m not,” she said after a beat, turning to smack Chloe on the back of the head. “And you’re not getting laid tonight anyway.”

You watched Chloe’s face go from happy to sad in a matter of seconds, and then she was pulling her puppy eyes but Max had already turned back to her food and was ignoring it. You thought about telling them what you were but now it was dangerous if they knew because of the twins and you squashed that thought very quickly. For now, you just enjoyed the normality of it all.

* * *

“I’m not worried. Everyone knows I’m here on a music scholarship,” you were sitting in the photography classroom after Chloe dropped you and Max off, talking to Morgan after splitting away from Max when she headed towards Kate. “Plus, it was just a question. Did they seem off?”

“Any more off than any of us who are stuck in this world? No,” Morgan answered as she flipped through a book on photography, trying to catch up on the material before class. 

“Then I don’t see a problem.”

“That’s because there isn’t. Reed just has anxiety.”

You laughed quietly, pushing yourself back until you were sitting on the table with your legs dangling off. “Was he like this before I got here?”

“Kind of. I don’t really know, we all knew about each other before you got here but none of us talked. Didn’t have a reason to. It’s not like there was another alpha who was around before you.”

“I didn’t think there were any wolves here when I decided to apply.”

Morgan just shrugged, leaning back in her chair after flipping the book closed. 

“Arcadia Bay isn’t on anyone’s map, even in our world. Everyone knows that besides California, the only other place on this side of the country that people like us go is Seattle and even then, before you got here and brought your connections, I didn’t know any pack up there until you told us about the Diaz family.”

“I figured no one would be here. New York was fucking crawling with things,” your voice was quieter but you knew Morgan could still hear what you were saying. 

“You never know, maybe we all missed something and-”

“Are you stalking me now or something?” Both you and Morgan turned to see Victoria, her hand on her hip with that signature scowl ever present.

“What?” You asked, quirking a brow. You were already tired of talking to her. Morgan had a small smile on her face but thankfully kept her mouth shut.

“Why are you here?” 

“In this classroom or Blackwell or the world, ‘cause I’m pretty sure the answer to all of them is just to annoy you.”

A scoff, and then shockingly, a smile came from Victoria. But no words. She just turned on her heel and waltzed over to her seat. 

“What the fuck was that?” You asked, looking back at Morgan.

“Figure it out,” you narrowed your eyes at her but she wasn’t even the least bit intimidated by it. “But do it somewhere else because class is about to start.” She less than gently tried to push you off the table.

“Yeah, yeah. I’m going,” you mumbled and slid onto the ground, heading for the door just as Mr. Jefferson walked in. 

You didn’t go to your own class, deciding to go back to your dorm instead. There were only a couple classes left anyway and they weren’t the kind you knew you needed to go to. You changed into a pair of shorts and promptly fell into your bed. Your room wasn’t extravagant, it had your personal items everywhere but still managed to look bare. There were pictures on your desk of you and your parents and some of you and your dad and then just some of your dad at different stages of his life. There was a keyboard next to your desk and a ukulele hanging above it on the wall, an ever present reminder that you had a piece due soon that you hadn’t even started. A couch was opposite your bed, pushing to the right far enough that you could still get into your closet and a standalone dresser was pushed in the corner on the right side of the door. It was still very you even though you left most of your things in New York. 

You laid in your bed, enjoying the breeze from the window you opened and played on your phone, falling asleep minutes later when you were comfortable enough to.

* * *

The first thing you noticed when you woke up was your phone ringing, except it was muffled and you took you a few seconds to realize you were laying on it. You rolled over, lifting the screen to your face and squinting to see the name.

“What do you want, Reed?” You asked after pressing the device to your ear.

“Where are you?” He ignored your question and you didn’t press considering the panic you recognized in his tone.

“My room. Why?”

  
“Meet me outside,” and then he hung up. 

You felt more awake by the time you changed back into jeans and threw a hoodie on, pocketing your phone as you walked out of your room and then the building. Just as he said, Reed was waiting for you on the steps and smelled of fear.

“What’s going on?” You asked when you were close enough, already starting to follow him when he just started walking away.

“Dylan’s hurt,” he said quietly, almost like he was scared to. You stopped, your fingers wrapping around his bicep and squeezing to pull him to a stop as well. 

“What?”

“Iz went over to check on him earlier because he wasn’t answering anyone and found him in his backyard with an arrow stuck in his shoulder. It was laced with wolfsbane. Know anyone in town who uses that?” Reed asked, his face losing color the longer he spoke. You didn’t respond but you released his arm and again started walking. 

“Where are you going?” Reed asked once he caught up with you.

“It’ll be faster if we don’t drive and it doesn’t matter how we show up, if the twins are still there then they’ll know what we are anyway.” Reed nodded when you were finished, pulling out his phone to text who you could assume to be Morgan. 

You didn’t notice someone was calling your name until Reed hit your arm, nodding behind you until you turned. Max was jogging to catch up, Kate behind her by a few steps. 

“Hey! I wanted to see if you wanted to hang out with us tonight. I don’t know what Chloe has planned but apparently it’s supposed to be amazing. Her words, not mine,” Max had walked over with a smile but it was slowly fading the longer she looked at you. 

“Sorry, kid. Not tonight. Me and Reed are gonna go catch a movie or something,” you answered with a forced smile, subtly nudging Reed until he mumbled an agreement. 

Max nodded, the smile coming back. “Let me know if you want to come over afterwards, and you can bring Reed too.” You smiled, nodding until she and Kate turned and walked in the other direction.

“You’re shitty at keeping a cover,” you said to Reed when you both started walking again, moving through the parking lot and into the thicket of trees. 

“Fuck off. I’m a little busy panicking,” he answered, coming to a stop when both of you could no longer be seen. He slid his backpack off, dropping it on the ground as he moved to take off his jacket. You mirrored him, but with your hoodie, pulling it off and stuffing it into his bag. You took turns until both of you were stripped down and your clothes were in his bag, prompting you to walk another few feet before you felt your heart rate start to pick up. Anger was the easiest emotion for you to summon to get your heart beating quickly and it only took a couple of seconds for the beating to spike high enough for you to phase, and then a shade of red outlined your field of view. Your ears perked, hearing Reed phase behind you and you turned to see him gently grabbing hold of his backpack. He trotted up to you with the bag hanging from his mouth. His fur was brown with lighter colored streaks, that same color outlining eyes that were glowing a yellowish orange. He blended in with the trees, and you remained in stark contrast. Your coat was white all over, the only exception being the grey that outlined your eyes that shone a bright blue. You moved closer to the omega, rubbing your fur against his before huffing. You heard his voice in your head, the neural link the entire pack shared when phased was opening between the both of you.

_ You ready?  _ He asked, his head tilting to the side slightly.

_ Always.  _

You both were running a second later, and you meant it when you said ‘always’. You loved it when you phased and you felt free when you were running. You guessed it was just a wolf thing; feeling instantly better when you were on four feet instead of two. You were happy for a moment before you remembered what you were heading towards. 

_ What are we gonna do about the twins?  _ Reed’s voice came filtering in and you made a point not to answer because he already knew what your first instinct was, which would result in cops swarming around Blackwell until someone was pinned with a crime. 

* * *

You got to Dylan’s house a few minutes later, both you and Reed lingering on the edge of the woods behind his fenced-in backyard. You both phased again and redressed, sharing a pointed look at the scent of blood and worry that instantly filled your lungs. And then you were jumping the fence and jogging over to the backdoor, letting yourself in and following the smell into the bedroom to find Dylan laid out and Morgan sitting on the edge of the bed, a hand over the bandage on his shoulder. Iz was standing by the door, his eyes to the floor and his arms crossed. He didn’t even notice you and Reed were there until you laid a comforting hand on his arm, projecting your own scent inside the room until you felt all of them calm down a little. You walked over to the bed, standing beside Morgan with a hand on her shoulder and looking down at the omega. His eyes were closed and his breathing was labored but you knew he wasn’t sleeping. 

You caught Morgan’s attention by squeezing her shoulder, nodding to the bandage once she caught your gaze. It took her a second, but she moved it, flipping it over and setting it on Dylan’s stomach. Besides the obvious hole that no doubt left by the arrowhead, which was still lodged in there and you could see the jagged edge of the wooden arrow where it was broken off. There were black lines sprouting out, circling the wound. The lines looked like they were moving, like the blackness in them was a liquid sloshing back and forth in their effort to grow longer. That’s when Dylan opened his eyes and found you. He grinned, but you could see the pain even doing that brought to him. 

“About time you showed up,” he said, his voice hoarse. You smiled back despite the unease you felt. 

“Did you think I’d stay away?” You forced yourself to keep the smile there as you took a seat on the edge of the bed, moving your hand from Morgan’s shoulder to Dylan’s forearm. “Reed, go keep an eye out, make sure no one shows up or is lurking around,” you turned away from Dylan to look at Morgan. “Go with him.”

She hesitated for a moment before obeying, standing from her spot on the bed and following Reed out into the hallway. 

“Iz, come here,” you beckoned. He was quiet as he moved to the other side of the bed, kneeling on the comforter. “This is gonna hurt, you know that. I’ll make it quick and take care of the pain when it’s over,” you said after turning back to Dylan, getting a nod in response. 

“Make sure he stays still. If you think you can’t do it, go get Morgan,” you addressed Israel, standing from the bed and leaning over it instead. 

“I can do it,” his accent was thicker than the day before and you knew it was because of the anger coursing through his body. 

You nodded once, pressing your left hand to Dylan’s chest to help hold him down while the other went to his shoulder. You allowed your fingernails to become claws, surprised that you could control it that easily when your emotions were already out of check. 

A glance was shared with Israel before you set to work, instructing Dylan to just keep breathing before you dug two fingers into the wound, careful so you didn’t cut yourself on the arrowhead in the process. You gripped the broken end of the wooden shaft and tested the water with a soft tug, flinching at the sound that Dylan made. You felt his body heat up, knowing the longer you continued, the higher the chances of him losing control of himself. Israel had his full weight on the bed, leaning over Dylan to keep him pinned down. Your eyes took on a blue color as you willed the claws to grow longer and you slid them around the broken end of the arrow shaft to further cut the muscle so the arrowhead wasn’t being squeezed so tightly. Again, you tugged on it, pulling with your right hand and pushing with your left when Dylan started thrashing. You pulled the piece of metal out in a single quick movement, letting it drop to the floor and reaching for Dylan again. 

“Probably should have done this in the bathroom. We gotta clean it out before we let it heal,” you said to Israel, starting to pull Dylan from the bed with his help a second later. Morgan eventually came in and helped get the older wolf into the en suite and you practically dropped him in the bathtub. Israel leaned over you to turn the water on and reached up to get the showerhead before handing it to you, which is when you pointed it at Dylan’s shoulder and watched the blood come off him in rivulets. You motioned for Israel to come to the other side of you and handed him the showerhead, grabbing for Dylan’s hand instead. Black lines started to form on the back of your hand then, traveling up your arm. It was a perk you wished you didn’t have but was grateful that you did. Dylan calmed down considerably since you were the one feeling his pain now and you grunted from the sudden onslaught of it. Israel held the water on the wound until the blood disappeared and it healed over, giving a clear signal that the wolfsbane had been washed from it. You let go of Dylan’s hand after the wound completely disappeared and left Israel and Morgan to get him back to bed. Reed was in the process of throwing the used bandages away and getting rid of the arrowhead when you left the bathroom and headed for the kitchen, pausing to lean against the counter and catch your breath for a moment. The pain wasn’t unbearable but it was still a lot and it always weighed heavy on you when you took someone else’s pain. 

“There couldn’t have been a lot of it on there if he healed up that quickly,” you heard, lifting your head to see Morgan standing across from you, leaning on the opposite counter.

“Huh?” 

“The arrow,” she clarified. “The wolfsbane, too.”

“Oh,” you shook your head, standing straighter. “Yeah, I guess. If it was a lethal amount he would have been dead before I got here, but the twins aren’t really known for quick kills, you know. They like to watch their prey wither,” you said the last part of the sentence with venom in your tone, the anger from earlier suddenly back. 

“What the hell are we gonna do? It’s been a day since they’ve been here and they already know about Dylan, and if they’re still hanging around, they know about us.” 

“I don’t know, Morgan. It’s not like we can just go and get rid of them and I’m not exactly willing to call truce even if I thought they were good for it.”

“How do you think they found out about him?” Morgan asked, and you breathed out a sigh at the question before lifting yourself onto the counter. Israel and Reed walked into the space, their faces telling you they heard the entire conversation. 

“I don’t fuckin’ know,” you answered honestly, leaning your head back and closing your eyes. “Iz, you stayed here last night, did you guys go out and hunt or something?”

Israel shook his head, sliding onto the counter next to you. “No, we stayed in. I left before he even woke up ‘cause I got called in at the diner.”

“Not to take away from Dylan right now or anything, but how the hell are we supposed to go back to Blackwell and act like everything’s fine?” Reed asked, looking primarily at you. 

“We just have to. We don’t know if they know about the three of us yet and until we do, we can’t do anything. I don’t think they’d risk doing something to us while we’re at school,” you answered. “But that doesn’t mean we don’t do anything. We’ve gotta watch out for them even if it’s just to know where they are. We all have to keep appearances but I’m not about to just lose track of them to find out they attacked another one of us. It’s still five to two.”

No one spoke again for a few minutes. 

“Iz, try and stay here as much as you can. Even if they don’t know about us yet, they’re gonna find out eventually and I really don’t care when anymore. Stay here when you can so Dylan’s not alone. He’ll be back to his normal self in a couple of days and then you both can look out for each other,” you instructed. “And no one goes anywhere without someone else, got it? We don’t need anyone else getting hurt because they decided to take a trip through the woods alone.” 

Everyone voiced their approval and you pushed yourself off the counter, taking a step towards the fridge to grab a bottle of water before turning to Reed and Morgan. 

“If you guys don’t wanna go back to Blackwell, stay here, and if you don’t want to stay here, just stay together,” you said, turning away from the kitchen and venturing towards the front door. 

“Where are you going?” Reed asked from behind you.

“Like I said, I don’t want us being blind about where the twins are. After I find that out, I’m gonna go and at least try to be a normal kid. If you need me, call me,” you said before walking out of the house. You hesitated before leaving the property but they all probably knew that you needed time. They could smell the anger on you for sure and you still smelled it on them, even though they all had taken the scent of sadness as well. 

You pulled your hood up as you walked down the street, somewhat protecting you when the rain began to fall. 

You both hated and loved being a wolf. You decided that you hated it today.


	3. The Twins

Anna and Conner Stokes were at the Two Whales, eating breakfast on a Friday night. You found them by chance, having picked up on their scent on your way to the bus stop. Max and Chloe and Kate were there too, which is why you decided to walk in. You pushed your way into the booth next to Kate and smiled at your friends, but your eyes focused in on the people sitting at the far end of the diner. 

“Hey!” Chloe saying your name drew your attention to her and away from the twins. “How’d you know we were here?”

You took a second to come up with an excuse, widening your smile as you looked between the curious faces of the people at the table. “Saw you guys in here on my way to your house, Price. Max said something earlier about hanging out and Reed ended up having to cut the day short, so here I am. So, what’s the plan?” 

Everyone seemed satisfied with your answer and the smiles returned to their faces. 

“Dinner and then going back to the house to chill. Mom and stepdouche are away for the weekend, which is fine by me,” Chloe explained, draping her arm over Max’ shoulders as she spoke. 

“Great, so chilling means we have to put up with you taking the chemical route to happiness while trying to ignore the smell?” You asked, any trace of malice absent from your voice. Max laughed at your words and turned to smile at Chloe, lifting a hand to pat the punk’s cheek. The latter opened her mouth, reading to respond when a waiter came over and delivered their food. You stopped him on his way out and told him your order, ignoring the poorly covered annoyance he wore.

Max was already eating when you turned back to the table and relaxed in the padded booth and Chloe was already onto the next topic of discussion. You were stuck in your head, your gaze focusing in on the twins once more. 

You remembered the stories you’d heard through other wolves that had come across them and were lucky enough to survive, but you didn’t really understand what all the hype was about. They didn’t look any more threatening than two teenagers usually did and you wouldn’t even look twice at them if they were strangers to you. 

They had a past like yours, only both parents instead of one and neither of them were bitten as a result. They were your age, and their story happened right around the time yours did. They became orphans at fourteen and hunters at fifteen and trained with some group in New Mexico for a year before starting their hunt. You didn’t know how many wolves they’d killed, but it had to be enough to know exactly how much wolfsbane would kill one and how much would just cause suffering. You briefly wondered how you ended up in a different headspace than they did, but you already knew it was because you were turned. The anger you felt from the night your father was killed was still fresh and you thought about it everyday, but you didn’t think it was enough to start killing those like you. More often than not, the wolves you met over the years didn’t want to be what they were anymore than you did and every time you split paths with one of them, you couldn’t help but empathize. 

You were still angry, even as you sat in the booth, except it was the worst kind of anger for a wolf. You protective instinct had piqued because of what happened to Dylan and now you were in the same building as the people responsible for it. You felt a growl bubble in your chest and managed to hide it with a forced cough as you focused back on the people at the table, only noticing then that your food had been dropped off. So you started eating, and kept an eye on the twins. 

“Hurry up and eat, I’m ready to go home,” Chloe whined from the other side of the table.

“It’s not my fault you literally eat like a dog,” you shot back, a grin on your face as you spoke between bites.

“Children, stop fighting,” Kate said from beside you, causing the rest of you to stop and just look at her before laughing. It was the first time you heard her talk since you got there and of course she chose that moment to start. 

You looked back over at Max, eyes focusing on the two people visible over her shoulder just to find them looking back at you, smug expressions on both of their faces. The grin you wore was gone, joy replaced by anger the longer you held the twins’ gaze. You only looked away when someone stepped in your line of sight and your eyes lifted to meet Victoria’s, the ever-present scowl rooted on her features as she looked at you for a moment before turning away, waltzing over to the table the twins were at. When your attention was drawn back to the table, you pushed your plate away and nodded towards Chloe. “Alright, let’s go,” you announced, trying to make your voice sound happier than it did. Questioning looks met you when you looked up and Chloe just shrugged before nudging Max out of the booth. You stood from the table a second later, watching as Max went to pay before pulling your phone out of your pocket.

**[Me. 6:43PM]:** they know about the rest of us. or at least they know about me

**[Morgan. 6:43PM]:** did you find them

**[Me. 6:44PM]:** at the two whales met up with max and them 

**[Me. 6:44PM]:** they know about me and im betting they know about the rest of us too

**[Morgan. 6:45PM]:** no ones leaving here so we’ll all be fine if they come back and try something

**[Me. 6:45PM]:** just be careful. im leaving the diner and i dont think following them is a great idea right now

**[Morgan. 6:46PM]:** keep in touch

You pocketed your phone when Max returned to the group and you followed them out of the diner and over towards Chloe’s truck.

“Great. Can’t wait to ride in this death trap,” you commented, smiling when Chloe shot you an unconvincing glare. “Also, how the hell are we all supposed to fit?” 

“You’re all short and small, you’ll figure it out,” Chloe declared, already getting into the driver’s seat. You shook your head, opening the other door and motioning for Max and Kate to get in before you followed. Everyone ended up being on someone else and you were more than worried that Chloe would get distracted and accidentally drive into a ditch, and you were pleasantly surprised when the truck stopped in front of the Price house and no one was hurt. Everyone piled out of the truck and filed into the house, collapsing in different areas of the living room. Max and Chloe took the couch and Kate took the recliner and you sat on the floor, leaning back against the couch. You leaned your head back, closing your eyes as Chloe flipped through the TV channels in an attempt to find something interesting enough to qualify as decent background noise for whatever the group would end up talking about. 

“What’s up with you?” Max asked, flicking the side of your head. It wasn’t enough to get you to move, so you just breathed out a sigh.

“Nothin’. Just tired,” you answered, lifting a hand to rub your eyes. “You know how it is.”

“Could be worse.” 

You had to laugh at that, lifting your head and tilting your head to the floor. “Could be.” Speaking of that, you felt your phone vibrate in your pocket and moved to pull it out, stopping when you heard someone knock on the front door. Your brows furrowed, nostrils flaring as you picked up the scent of whoever was there. 

“I’ll get it,” you stated, standing from your spot on the floor. You pulled your phone out on your way to the door, glancing at the messages that popped up on the screen.

**[Reed. 7:04PM]:** morgan left 

**[Reed. 7:04PM]:** didnt say where she was going and told the rest of us to stay here

You pocketed your phone as you reached for the door, pulling it open to reveal Morgan standing there, her scent not a clear indicator of her emotions. 

“What?” You questioned, stepping outside and pulling the door shut behind you. 

“I don’t want to just sit around and wait for them to do something,” she answered, the smell of anger overwhelming your senses. 

“And what? You want to go do something? What the hell are we gonna do that isn’t gonna draw more attention? We can’t just go kill them and if we hurt them, there’s a chance they’re gonna expose us and then we’re all fucked, Morgan. What the fuck do you want to do?” You asked, your hand gripping her arm and pulling her away from the door. She resisted, trying to pull her arm out of your grasp.

“Something! You can’t tell me you’re fine with just sitting around.”

“I’m not. Believe me, I’m not, but we can’t just go and do something to retaliate. If they wanted to kill us, they’d have already tried. They had every chance to kill Dylan when they shot him. It wasn’t enough to kill him and they could have done it before we even knew it was happening, but they didn’t. They’re fucking with us, Morgan. They’re not trying to kill us right now, they’re trying to make us angry,” you explained, your grip tightening on her bicep to keep her still.

“Aren’t you angry?” 

“Of course I’m angry. You’re not the only one. Go back to Dylan’s, we’ll talk about it later,” your voice carried a sense of authority, reaching out to the wolf instead of the human you were talking to. 

Morgan didn’t say anything. She ripped her arm free and turned to walk away from the house. You watched her leave, faintly hearing the front door open behind you.

“Everything okay?” Chloe asked when you turned around, taking the few steps back towards her. 

“No,” you answered curtly, walking past her and back into the house, returning to the spot you were in before that whole conversation, pulling your phone out to text Reed.

**[Me. 7:16PM]:** morgans on her way back. let me know when she gets there

You pocketed the device without waiting for a reply, avoiding Chloe’s questioning look when she took her spot next to Max again. 

* * *

“Are you gonna tell me what happened earlier?” Chloe asked as she came up behind you in the kitchen. You were in the middle of deciding what to get to drink, a sigh leaving you when you grabbed a bottle of soda and turned around. 

“Nope,” you answered, twisting the cap off and taking a long sip.

“Dude, you came back in pissed as hell. Something happened.” 

You didn’t answer, shaking your head as you pushed off the counter and made for the living room again. Max and Kate were in the middle of talking about some photography project, keeping an eye on the movie playing while they did. You would have joined them had Chloe not stopped you with a hand around your wrist.

“Tell me what happened,” she insisted, refusing to let go of you.

“You don’t need to know, Chloe,” you bit out, trying to keep your emotions in check.

“I’m your friend, and you’re not acting like yourself, which means it’s something big,” she explained, like it would convince you to open up. 

You were again tempted to confess it all, but then you remembered Dylan had already gotten attacked and Morgan was on the edge of doing something extremely stupid and it was your job to control it all. The last thing you needed was a group of humans thrown onto the battlefield. 

You expression softened then. “It’s nothing. Right now it’s nothing, that’s why I don’t want to talk about it. If it gets worse, then..” you trailed off, not sure how to continue. But Chloe seemed to understand and released her grip, nodding at you and offering a supportive smile before she headed back to the other two. You moved to follow but paused, leaning against the counter that separated the kitchen and dining room for a moment, setting the bottle you held down and getting your phone.

**[Me. 8:47PM]:** i wanna know more about the twins other than the stories everyone knows. call pack in seattle and see if they know anything and if they dont ill send you the number of the pack i know in cali 

Your eyes scanned your messages between you and Reed, from earlier in the day to the last one he sent informing you that Morgan had gotten back. You sent another message to the wolf including Sean’s number with instructions to talk to his dad if he got a hold of him. 

**[Reed. 8:49PM]:** alright ill let you know

You were happy with that and pocketed your phone, taking the bottle you claimed and moving into the living room just as the conversation switched to Chloe’s desire to go toke up. She departed a few moments later and you heard her stomp up the stairs before she slammed her door. 

“Are you okay?” You turned back to the people around you when Kate started talking, responding with a nod and a smile you hoped didn’t look as fake as it was.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Just tired,” that seemed to become your excuse for everything in the last couple days and even you realized how obnoxious it was.

The two girls seemed to accept that and went back to their previous conversation about photography. 

“Did you see the photo the new girl submitted? Anna, I think,” Max asked Kate, piquing your interest and for the moment, you were content just to listen.

Kate shook her head, though, and Max moved on to explaining. 

“The Totem thing, except she made it look ten times more creepier than it really is.” 

You tuned out the rest, relaxing against the couch. At some point you fell asleep and only woke up when Chloe came bounding back down the stairs loud enough to make the neighbors file a noise complaint. 

You joined in on the discussion of what to watch next, groaning when Chloe gave into Max and allowed her to put on some indie movie none of you had ever heard of before, but you paid attention. Surprisingly, it wasn’t all that bad. Some of the dialogue was a little cringey at times and you could tell the cast wasn’t people who had acted before, but it was good for what it was. You finished the drink you got earlier and went back to get another, taking a moment to check your messages again.

**[Reed. 9:34PM]:** called and talked to esteban and he didnt have anything we didnt already know but sean told me that things have been getting weird up there

**[Reed. 9:35PM]:** apparently another pack showed up in seattle and said they were headed to arcadia bay but that they havent left yet

**[Reed. 9:36PM]:** sean said theyre the second pack to show up wanting to come to the bay and the first one said hunters were showing up too 

**[Me: 9:58PM]:** great thats not creepy or anything 

You only had to wait a few seconds for a response. 

**[Reed. 9:59PM]:** thats what i was thinking

**[Reed. 9:59PM]:** but at least its good to know the twins didnt know we were here when they came

**[Me. 10:00PM]:** still a little concerning to know something here is drawing in supernatural shit

**[Reed. 10:01PM]:** yeah but how are we supposed to figure out what it is 

**[Reed. 10:01PM]:** do you think the twins know what it is

**[Me. 10:02PM]:** i dont know but i dont really think its a good idea to go asking them

You pocketed your phone and quickly grabbed another drink, returning to your friends but your thoughts were somewhere else, thinking about what it could be that’s drawing the supernatural to Arcadia Bay and if the twins had anything to do with it and who they really were and if anything else would end up happening. 

You really shouldn’t be that surprised. You knew something like this would eventually happen. Things had gone smoothly up until this point; you managed to get away from the pack in New York even though you found one in the Bay, but you were successful in flying under the radar. You had good friends that weren’t all wolves and you were genuinely enjoying yourself. You should’ve known something would happen, you should have expected the other shoe to drop before now.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I'm a day late but I think I get a pass considering it's the holidays. :) That being said, Happy Holidays to everyone!


	4. Warning Call

The entire pack was still awake when you got back to Dylan’s the next morning. You’d spent the night at Chloe’s, sleep coming to you in intervals. Your thoughts were running rampant, keeping you awake with the moon, though you guessed the moon alone played a part in your distress. So you were surprised that everyone was awake save for Dylan when you arrived at the house before sunrise. 

“Why are you guys still awake?” You asked when you were inside, plopping down on Dylan’s couch. The other three wolves were spread around the room on various surfaces. 

“Reed told us about what you guys talked about last night and we were all just talking,” Iz answered in his thick accent. 

“And?” 

Morgan spoke up this time, straightening herself in the recliner she was on. “Dylan’s been in Arcadia the longest but he’s out for a while and I’m the next one whose been here the longest.”

“Okay?” 

“I can’t think of anything that drew me in. I came here for Blackwell, mostly. I wasn’t obviously drawn to anything when I got here either, so I have no clue what it is that’s drawing people in.”

“Okay,” you mumbled, leaning forward to rest your elbows on your knees, rubbing your hand over your face. “What about legends?” You asked after dropping your hand.

“I don’t know any that are specific to the supernatural,” Morgan spoke up. “Arcadia’s old but I don’t know.” 

“Great,” you paused for a beat, leaning back against the couch. “Someone start looking shit up. We know enough people that we’ll be able to weed out the fake ones from the real ones. The library should have books on Arcadia’s history, so we can go check those out later.” 

Everyone made noises of agreement and Reed already had his laptop sitting out, his fingers dancing across the keyboard. 

“Sean told you that there were two packs that showed up in Seattle saying they were gonna come here, right?” Morgan asked, looking at Reed. He nodded without looking away from the computer. “Okay, so where are they?” 

You tilted your head, pursing your lips in thought. “He also said there were hunters that showed up saying the same thing. Who fuckin’ knows?” You shook your head, more than annoyed that once again, you were the ones trying to piece everything together. “But, if we don’t figure this shit out and a bunch of other packs and hunters show up here, we’re fucked. I’d be ignoring this shit and just focusing on the twins if there wasn’t the risk of a flood of supernatural things showing up here.” Your voice was tired, and although everything agreed with a slow nod, you still felt there was something that wasn’t being said. You let it go for now. 

“So what do we do?” Iz asked.

“Try to make sense of everything,” you answered, breathing out heavily. 

“And after that?”

“Try to fix it.” 

The silence set in again after that, the only sound coming from Reed’s fingers on the keyboard. Some part of you was scared about what you would find but another part knew you had to know. 

* * *

Three hours later, you and Reed were walking into Blackwell, making a beeline for the library. 

“Okay, tell me again what you read about,” you told him.

“There’s a bunch of legends about Arcadia but none of the ones I found were specific to wolves or anything supernatural for that matter. There’s no history of supernatural things being here. No legends or myths about other packs or clans or anything. It’s like there’s a fucking blackout, there is absolutely nothing, like everything that was there got deleted or something or like something’s missing,” Reed explained as you turned the corner and continued down a hallway towards the library. It was Saturday, and you were glad the school wasn’t flooded with students. 

“I’m guessing you don’t believe that Arcadia Bay is just a normal backwater town in the middle of fucking nowhere?” You asked, sighing with the words. You already knew the answer and you already knew you agreed with it. 

“Do you?” 

“Absolutely not,” you laughed quietly as you pushed your way into the library, stopping to look around until you spotted the ‘Local History’ section. You pointed towards it before gently pushing Reed in that direction. 

“Hold on, are we just supposed to check out every book about Arcadia’s history?” Reed asked as you both stopped in one of the aisles. 

“No. Just look for books that might relate to what we’re looking for. History of specific areas in town, the origins of the town, or common legends or myths or shit like that,” you explained before walking away, already looking up and down the shelves. 

* * *

Reed found you a half an hour later, carrying four books that outlined the various histories of Arcadia Bay. You beat him by one book, holding four on one arm and extending the other towards him. 

“‘ _ Paranormal Events in Arcadia Bay: The Legends and Myths, _ ’” Reed read aloud, breathing out a sigh when he was finished. “Great. Sounds like a fantastic read. Can’t wait.”

“Exactly what I thought,” you said unenthusiastically. “What’d you find?”

“Mythological ties to the city, general history of the Bay, historical areas within the city limits, shit like that.” 

“Okay. We should find something,” you said. “I hope.” 

“Yeah, I just wonder if whatever we find is actually gonna help us.” 

You didn’t say anything else as you both checked out the books, and you wished you’d have brought your backpack because now you have to just carry a bunch of books around.

You pulled your phone out as you waited for Reed to get all his books checked, setting the ones you gathered on the counter beside his.

**[Me. 8:56AM]:** we’re just finishing up here and then we’ll be on our way back

**[Morgan. 8:57AM]:** mkay iz is still looking stuff up on the laptop but cant find anything

**[Morgan. 8:58AM]:** and dylan woke up a couple minutes ago

“Dyl’s awake,” you told Reed, stuffing your phone back in your pocket and getting the books you set down. “And my car is still here so we can just take that back. I don’t wanna take the bus back over there. I just need to stop in my dorm to get my keys.” 

The both of you headed towards the dorm building when you left Blackwell and you were pleasantly surprised that no one interrupted your walk. Everything was going smoothly, as smooth as they can considering the circumstances of the last few days. Again, you should have known something was bound to happen.

“Look at that, Blackwell’s very own dyke,” you heard Victoria say. It wasn’t a secret that you were gay and you didn’t really get bothered by the comments anymore. You had a sneaking suspicion all of Victoria’s jabs were a cover up anyway. You would have said something back. You were already formulating a response when Anna came around the corner and stopped behind Victoria, causing Reed to bristle next to you. You put a hand up, adjusting the bag you got when you got your keys and pressed your forearm to Reed’s stomach. You didn’t have to be phased to know what he was thinking. The alpha in you was feeding off his anger, though, fueling your own rage until you were stepping forward and had to be stopped by your beta. You looked at him, took a breath and stuffed all that anger back down. 

And then you put on a smile and aimed it at the blonde that you didn’t really hate despite the fact that you probably should. “Look at that, Blackwell’s very own queen bitch.”

A scoff was thrown your way but you didn’t even try to pay attention to the look she wore. Your gaze was trained on Anna and you wondered, just for a moment, how she could look so unthreatening when you’ve seen her torture someone before. It’s almost like she knew, like she could tell exactly what you were thinking. She was staring through you; it was unsettling for multiple reasons. Before anything else was said, you reached for Reed and pulled him out of the dorm, keeping a tight hold on him all the way to the parking lot. It was a silent ride back to Dylan’s and you and Reed were communicating by negative energy. 

“Guess who we ran into?” Reed asked to no one in particular upon entering the house, leaving you to drop the bag full of books on the coffee table. 

“Santa?” Morgan spoke up.

“Close. Try satan.” 

“Anna,” you clarified before the conversation continued, already taking a seat in one of Dylan’s recliners and setting yourself to work stacking the books up outside of the bag. “She didn’t say anything, to answer your next question. And no, neither of us said anything either.”

“Great,” she said, standing and moving towards you, a stack of papers extended for you to take. “The information Izzy found.” 

You took them, setting them in your lap to finish up with the books. Your gaze traveled around the living room, noting that neither Israel or Dylan was present. “Where is he?”

Morgan grabbed a book from the stack and collapsed back on the couch. “With Dylan. I wish they’d just tell us already. It’s not like they’re particularly good at sneaking around.”

You grinned, tossing Reed a book before relaxing into the chair. Dylan and Israel had been dancing around each other since Iz came to Arcadia Bay. Joining the pack just basically cemented their relationship, but they still hadn’t told anyone. It didn’t really matter to you, as long as they were happy, you didn’t care what they did in terms of their love life. 

The papers Morgan handed you drew your attention back to the task at hand. It was a thick packet of text that looked to be way too small to make it an easy read. One of the headlines did catch your attention though. “‘ _ The Battle of Arcadia Bay: The Day the Werewolves Fought the Vampires’?” _

Morgan lifted her head from the book balanced on her knee, quirking a brow. “Yes?”

“Seriously?” You questioned, doubt creeping into the corners of your thoughts. “Do you really think anything in this is gonna help us?”

She shrugged, directing her attention back on the book, “Maybe. Read it and find out.” 

You hoped the glare you sent her way would be enough but all it did was make her laugh; and then Reed was laughing, and then you were laughing. It was one of those moments where nothing was particularly funny, but it just felt good to laugh, even if it was at how ridiculous everything was. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short chapter this week, but I decided to break the next couple of chapters up into smaller pieces because there will be a lot happening. After chapter six, the story will pick back up and stay that way for a while. 
> 
> As a side note for those of you who are wondering if and when I will continue Code Blue, I will. I plan to start posting chapters again sometime towards the end of the month/beginning of next month. I'm trying to get a lot of content on backlog for when I get busier again but I have not abandoned Code Blue. I still have a lot of ideas for the story and plans to continue it with sequels and side stories. 
> 
> As always, comments and kudos are appreciated!


	5. Legends and Myths

The three of you spent the next few hours looking through all the books and papers, trying to find anything that could be a clue as to why everything was happening. You read the article you doubted would have any useful information and was actually surprised at what it entailed. There was actually good stuff in it, but the title could use some work. 

“Okay, all I found in this-” you paused, leaning forward in the chair and holding the packet Morgan gave you up, “is that this place used to be crawling with supernatural shit until something ran them out, but no one knows what and theorists think it was because of some big ass war between supernaturals that probably didn’t happen.” 

“So, it basically doesn’t help at all,” Morgan said, sitting up on the couch and yawning. “I went through three books on Arcadia’s history and the only supernatural thing in all of them is the damn totem thing by the dorms, but it doesn’t say anything about wolves or hunters or any of that shit.” 

Reed was next, leaning forward in his own chair. “I read the one you showed me at the library, the one about paranormal events. There’s nothing really helpful in terms of our kind of paranormal shit, but there’s stuff about how Blackwell was built on Native American land before the founder built the school, and it mentions the totem but doesn’t really go into detail about it. Just says that it’s been a constant symbol of the history of the land.” 

“So the totem seems to be the common denominator so far. Great. Can’t fucking wait to see where that takes us,” you grumbled. Silence settled over the room once again, all three of you returning your attention to the books and papers until Iz and Dylan came down the hall, the latter leaning against the former for support, another stack of papers in his hand.

“It leads us to this, actually,” Dylan announced, handing the papers to you on his way to the couch. “No one knows where it came from, it’s connection to the Native American’s that were here in the late 1800s is just what everyone has accepted. It was here when Blackwell was built and no tribe has claimed it. For all we know, it could be something supernatural.”

“Yeah, but how are we supposed to figure out if it is?” Reed asked, setting his book aside.

Dylan shrugged, leaning once again on Israel when he sat next to him. “I don’t know, but it’s the only thing we have that’s actually plausible. We can sit here and go through the rest of this shit and I think we should, but I think we’re gonna keep running into the same thing. We’re gonna keep getting back to the totem. Think about it, guys. One thing that no one has any clue about, the history books say it’s been here but no one knows how it got here. Doesn’t that seem weird?” 

“The packet Morgan gave me said there used to be a ton of supernaturals here and that something ran them off,” you said, more to yourself than anyone else. You were just voicing your thoughts at this point. “What if what brought them here made them leave too?”

“Think about it like this,” Dylan started, pointing at you and saying your name. “You came here of all places. You’re from New York and you moved to the other side of the country, and for what? I’m sure there are better schools than Blackwell between here and where you’re from but you chose Blackwell. You chose to leave everything and come here. I came here when I was fourteen, I’ve stayed for five years even though my parents have left. Reed and Morgan both left home to come here. Iz was a lone wolf before he came to Arcadia, he’d been on his own for seven years, since he was thirteen, and he stayed. And it wasn’t because there was a pack here, I’m sure he ran into other packs in other places but he didn’t stop moving until he came here. We’re all here and we don’t know exactly why. Fine, Blackwell is a good school, but it isn’t the best. The job market here is trash if you’re not a fisherman. There’s nothing here, so why were we all drawn here?”

The four of you stayed quiet, too lost in the train of thought Dylan threw everyone on. 

“You think it is the totem?” You asked after a beat of silence.

“I think it could be. It’s the only thing that doesn’t make any sense in itself but it makes everything else make sense. I don’t fucking know, but I think it’s something we need to find out.” 

* * *

After Dylan more or less slapped some sense into the rest of the pack with his information on the totem, the research resumed. Everything shifted to look for things about the totem itself; Reed was back on his laptop looking for anything that could be applied to the one by the dorms. 

By the time you got up to stretch and look for something to eat, nobody had found anything else that was useful. You were five minutes into your internal debate about having Doritos for dinner or ordering pizza when Dylan came into the kitchen and poured himself a drink of what you assumed to be vodka, if the clear glass bottle it was in was to be taken into consideration. 

He turned to face you and leaned back against the counter. “What are you thinkin’ about?”

“A lot of things,” you mumbled, setting your phone down. “How the hell we’re gonna find out if all this is really caused by the damn totem and what we’re gonna do if it is. It isn’t like we can just tear the damn thing down and if it is something supernatural, what’s gonna happen if we do try to destroy it.” 

“You’re getting ahead of yourself. We have an idea about what we’re doing now, just be happy about that.”

“I’m trying to be, Dyl, but I have to be ten steps ahead because I’m trying to keep innocent people from being hurt in the crossfire of whatever the fuck is happening.”

“You can’t save everyone.”

You glared at him at that, taking your phone and walking back into the living room. Somewhere along the way you decided on ordering pizza and went to work doing that, reciting the order perfectly because you always got the same thing whenever you got it for the pack. 

“In this book about-” Reed began when you finished with the order and put your phone down, pausing to flip the book over and read the title. “About mythological ties to Arcadia, the totem  _ could  _ be a magical relic.”

“And?” Morgan asked. 

“And there are animal carvings on it. The book doesn’t list what though so we might have to go look ourselves,” he explained. “But I’m not down to do it now, I’m tired and hungry.”

“We’ll go tomorrow,” you said, clearing the recliner you were in of books and papers before leaning back in the chair, resting your eyes. You ignored the conversation that carried on, nearly falling asleep until someone rang the doorbell. Dylan moved to get it before you could so you relaxed again. 

“Dinner is served,” Dylan announced when he closed the door, dropping the boxes on the coffee table unceremoniously. You waited until everyone else dug in before getting your fill, content to just fall asleep in the chair once you were fed. 

“Dude, go sleep in the guest room,” you felt Dylan nudge your shoulder before he spoke, one eye opening to look up at him. You followed his instructions and stood up, pausing to stretch before saying goodnight to everyone and retiring to the guest room. You internally reprimanded yourself for not bringing any extra clothes because now you had to sleep in jeans, which was fine, but extremely uncomfortable at times. 

* * *

You were woken up the next morning by Morgan roughly shaking you, nearly pushing you off the bed in her attempt. 

“What?” You asked at some point between actually waking up and trying to keep yourself from being pushed. 

“Anna’s here,” Morgan said, her voice a whisper despite the fact that the guest room was on the opposite end of the house from the living area. 

“For what?”

“I don’t know, she just knocked on the fucking door.” 

You groaned as you stood, carefully pushing Morgan’s hands away from you because she was  _ still  _ trying to shake you. She followed you out of the room and down the hall, into the living room where the other three pack members stood. 

“I didn’t let anyone answer the door,” Iz told you as you passed him on your way to the door, which you opened as soon as you got there. You refused to be scared of her on pack territory, and you stood there for probably thirty seconds despite it feeling like a year. No one said anything but you felt your pack file in behind you, Dylan stepping forward to be at your side, a clear declaration that they failed once already, and he wasn’t scared of them.

“Can I help you?” You asked after another beat, moving your hands into your pockets to hide the claws that had come out in preparation. 

“No. This just serves as your second warning, since the first one wasn’t obvious enough,” she said sweetly, her eyes narrowing when they landed on Dylan. 

“Thanks,” you said, slamming the door shut a second later. Your hand stayed on the knob until you heard footsteps retreat back towards the street. 

“Warning for what?” Reed asked eventually. 

“Probably to leave. Seems the most likely.”

“We’re not gonna do that though, right?”

“Nope,” you answered, exhaling deeply as you walked across the living room and collapsed on the couch. 

“When are we gonna go look at the Totem?” Reed asked after a beat of silence.

“Later. I’m tired,” you said through a yawn, a small smile gracing your lips when you practically felt Reed’s disbelief at your answer.

“Seriously?” He started. “Don’t you think we’re kind of on a time crunch here?”

A shrug was the only answer he got from you and you were almost able to fall back asleep, you would’ve been had someone not made coffee. Once the smell reached you, your body demanded the beverage more than it demanded sleep. You made your way into the kitchen, not at all surprised when Dylan immediately offered you a full cup with a knowing smile before retreating to the counter opposite you, leaning into Israel’s side. Morgan and Reed weren’t around but you knew they hadn’t gone far since you could still hear them. 

“We’re not running,” Israel eventually started; you struggled to place his tone. “What are we gonna do when they do something again?”

The question made you pause. It wasn’t that you didn’t know what to say. You had an answer, it just wasn’t a good one. You were the one that said violence wasn’t an option, it wouldn’t be good if that happened to be what you proposed in response. “I don’t know. Depends on what they do. I hate to say it but if they consider what they did to Dylan to be a warning, it’s no wonder it didn’t kill him, but the next thing they do could be something fatal.”

“What then? I’m not trying to downplay your abilities as an alpha and our abilities as a pack in general but I really don’t think we can fight two wars at once. We’re already preoccupied with the totem thing and finding out what the hell is happening in town, how are we supposed to prevent the twins from making a move while doing that and keeping up appearances with school and jobs?” Dylan explained, causing a sigh to sound from the back of your throat between sips of coffee.

“Thank you, Captain Obvious,” you retorted, turning to set the mug down. “I know we’re already busy and there’s no way we’re gonna be able to do both at the same time. We handle it like we always have. One day at a time. You guys are gonna go back to work. The twins won’t risk something public. We’re gonna go back to school, where we can keep an eye on them. When we’re not at work or school, the same rule applies that we don’t go anywhere alone and for the time being, no one phases unless it’s absolutely necessary. We can figure the shit out with the totem at some point, I don’t think it’s this pressing thing right now.” 

“I don’t think tha-” 

“I know you don’t, Dylan, but what else can we do that isn’t gonna be the metaphorical equivalent of getting ‘Hey, we’re werewolves’ tattooed across our foreheads?”

Dylan remained silent, obviously lost in thought as a result of your words. He never got the chance to respond before Reed and Morgan joined the rest of you, both of them looking like they were ready to go to Blackwell. 

“We’ll go in a minute,” you informed them as you walked by, moving back towards the guest room to get your shoes and jacket, patting your front pockets to make sure you had your keys before leaving, heading for the living room. “Let’s go.”

Dylan nodded at you before you left the house, a silent agreement that the conversation between the two of you earlier would be continued later. 

The drive to Blackwell was deafeningly quiet. You wished someone would talk just to get rid of the white noise that fell over the three of you like a blanket. Nobody spoke until you pulled the key from the ignition, and nobody moved for a solid minute. The twins were walking across the lot towards what you assumed was one of their cars. They saw you, you were sure of it, but didn’t give any sign that proved your thoughts. 

“Am I the only one thats bothered by the fact that they’re literally walking around with weapons and enough mental instability to use them on everyone if they wanted to?” Morgan asked after popping her head forward between the driver and passenger seats. Both you and Reed turned to look at her, the breaths that left both of you a sufficient answer for her. The tension still hung in the air even as the three of you made the walk across campus, towards the Prescott Dormitory. There weren’t too many students hanging around in front of the building, which you were thankful for. The last thing you wanted to do was explain to someone why you were snooping around one of Arcadia’s historical landmarks. 

Reed looked more and more uncomfortable the closer you got to the totem, his scent was all but drenched in fear by the time you kneeled next to the rocks that outlined one side of the wooden feature. 

“Do you see any of the symbols?” Morgan asked as she knelt beside you. You briefly turned to look at her, neglecting to miss how Reed stood a few paces behind the both of you, his hands jammed into his pockets like it would keep anyone from noticing that he was shaking. 

“Not yet,” you answered, turning back to face the totem. There was dirt caked in some of the smaller carvings towards the very bottom and you lifted a hand to clean them, rubbing your hand on your jeans a second later. “Well, shit.” 

“What?” Reed asked, panic barely lacing his voice. 

“Come look,” you instructed to both Reed and Morgan, lifting a finger to point at a specific figure. There were five in total, arranged in a circle surrounded by a thick line. It looked like the inside of a target, which made you uncomfortable for many reasons. No one had bothered to look at them for a long time considering how the symbols looked compared to the rest of the totem. The dirt must have been there for years judging by the state of the exposed wood the symbols took shape in. 

A bird and human accounted for the upper half of the circle, a whale and flower accounting for the lower half. That wasn’t what caught your attention though, and that wasn’t what made your stomach feel like someone had dropped a weight in it. Centered directly in the middle of the circle, completing the look of a target, was a man with a pelt of fur draped over his back. In the middle of all the symbols was a werewolf. 


	6. Faking It

Monday’s sucked. 

After Reed and Morgan got an idea of what exactly was on the totem, all three of you went back to Dylan’s and the pack spent the day and into the night just talking about what everything could mean. It was unanimously agreed upon that whatever was happening was probably fifteen levels outside of your paygrade. 

It was just another Monday when you woke up; you had something of a normal teenage life to get back to. School was still there and appearances had to be kept up if you didn’t want any more unnecessary attention drawn to the pack. The three of you that were enrolled in Blackwell drove back to the school a couple of hours before classes were to start. You needed a change of clothes after staying the weekend at Dylan’s and there was homework you had to somehow do in the short amount of time you had before it was due. One thing you were looking forward to was winter break. The semester was slowing down, which was fine, except it meant that all the students were busy occupying themselves with other things. It was the last thing you needed just when flying under the radar became a necessary thing. You were looking forward to the break because you’d already booked a ticket back home, but now you were worrying about whether or not the pack would be okay if you left town for an extended period of time. It was something you could worry about later, after you got caught up with all your classes.

You were only halfway done with all the work you had to do by the time classes started. You saw Reed and Morgan throughout the morning but made a conscious effort to not stop and get side-tracked. When everyone was at Dylan’s, you had no issue just focusing on pack issues but you couldn’t and didn’t want it to take over every aspect of your life. So, Blackwell was where you were just normal kids with normal kid things happening. You could play the alpha all you wanted when you weren’t on Blackwell’s grounds. 

Things were uninteresting until your science class. It didn’t take you long to realize that the twins were slowly being inducted into the Vortex Club, making their social status skyrocket until they held the same amount of faux power as Victoria’s minions. They were even following her around like Taylor and Courtney did, except Connor left seconds after the entire group filtered into the classroom. Ms. Grant came in just as the bell rang, immediately shushing the class. It was hard to focus. You were busy trying to glare your way into Anna’s thoughts, which made you extremely disappointed that your wolf abilities didn’t cover mind reading. Your heightened sense of smell kicked in when you gave up trying to read her thoughts. Anna didn’t smell particularly angry, she didn’t really smell like much of anything. Just neutral. You briefly wondered how long that would last. Victoria caught your attention next. She smelled normal enough, the only thing that felt off about her was when you chanced a look over just to find her already staring at you only to look away when she realized you were now staring back. It drew enough attention from the hunter that she turned as subtly as she could to look at you. You caught it. Of course you did, and she knew that from the smirk that played on her lips. Another glare set in and you could practically feel the frown pull at your lips. 

“Hope you’re smarter than you look right now,” you heard Anna whisper. It was quiet enough that no one even noticed she’d said something but you heard it loud and clear and had to resist the urge to growl. 

* * *

Morgan found you when the class ended, concern written across her face. Her nose crinkled as she got closer, probably smelling the stench of anger you were most likely giving off. 

“What?” You growled before she even stopped in front of you, your tone making her flinch.

“Nothing. Just. .” she trailed off, obviously struggling to find her words. 

“Just nothing,” you agreed with a harsh breath, already turning to leave. You would have got away had you not stopped at the feeling of pressure on your wrist, looking down to see that Morgan had grabbed you. Your gaze lifted to her face, a question on the edge of your tongue that never got asked. She was staring off down the hall, and when you followed her line of sight you saw Reed cornered by Victoria, the twins hot on her heels. If your scent had been bearable before, it wasn’t anymore. Your wrist was yanked free when you stepped forward, your path pushing you through the crowd of students that had gathered in the hallway. In the next minute, you were standing between Reed and primarily the twins. Victoria and her usual puppets weren’t even in your top one hundred priorities at the moment. You felt Morgan move behind you next to Reed more than anything. Your gaze was set on Connor as he was standing in front of his sister, a scowl settling on his features just at the sight of you.

“Can I help you?” Connor sneered, puffing out his chest like it had a chance of intimidating you.

You smiled then, successfully throwing him off for a moment. “Not yet. Keep fucking with my friends and you will.”

“Is that a threat?”

“It’s a  _ warning, _ ” you said with a grin, knowing they would recognize the play on words. It’s what Anna had told you at Dylan’s and the flash of anger your words caused was clear as day. 

“You don’t know who you’re messing with here,” Anna spoke up, stepping out from behind her brother. 

Your eyes slowly moved to her, the smile still on your lips. “Is that what you think? That I’ve never crossed you two before?” Something in the back of your mind knew Victoria and her minions were witnessing this entire thing but you couldn’t have cared less in the moment.

“We would know if we’ve seen you before.”

“Then maybe you didn’t see me,” you pointed out, your posture relaxing. Connor stepped towards you, drawing your gaze back to him. He was stopped by a hand on his shoulder, relenting to his sister though his scent still projected anger as if that was his natural scent. 

“What the hell are you freaks talking about?” Victoria asked, drawing everyone’s attention to her. All of you seemed to deflate for the moment, the entire group surprised that she’d spoken. 

“Nothing you need to worry yourself with, princess,” you quipped, throwing in an exaggerated smile. You didn’t miss the redness of her cheeks but you thought it was from the irritation you most likely caused. She wasn’t used to people throwing shit back in her face but you really thought she should have expected it from you by now.

Instead of carrying on the conversation with the twins any longer, you turned and laid a hand on Reed’s shoulder and reached for Morgan’s arm with the other, guiding them both away from the group. 

“That wasn’t really like you,” Reed commented when the three of you were far enough away. 

“No shit. They pissed me off,” you explained, like that was actually a good enough excuse for almost losing your shit. “Just. . Later, okay? I still have to get through the rest of the day without mauling someone.” 

“Sure, but where are we going?” It was then that you realized you were still dragging them down the hall. You stopped abruptly, easing your grip from both of them until you were able to rub your eyes with both hands. 

“I’m fine,” you mumbled, your words muffled by your hands. “I’m fine.” You walked away before any more questions could be thrown your way, heading towards your next class, where you collapsed into a desk and promptly fell asleep for the entire period. 

You woke up to an internal dilemma, which surprisingly didn’t relate to skipping class. It probably should have, considering how you’d been skipping some classes for the last week straight. You were thinking about the rules you’d set for the pack. You told them you didn’t want any of them going out and running alone or phasing if they didn’t absolutely have to but you felt like disobeying yourself already. Some part of you was still trying to rationalize what you were planning to do even as you left the classroom and moved to leave the school. You always kept a change of clothes in your backpack, so you were covered in that department. Your phone buzzing in your pocket made you pause.

**[Morgan. 12:46PM]:** where are you going

**[Me. 12:47PM]:** running. come if you want to and get reed if you do

You didn’t see the point in lying. If you were going to break one of your own rules, you figured you could at least be safe doing it. As safe as you could be phasing in the middle of the day. 

**[Morgan. 12:52PM]:** on our way

You nodded to yourself when you read the message, not bothering to reply. You got as far as the parking lot before stopping, leaning on your Jeep as you waited for them. You were kind of watching for your pack but otherwise lost in your thoughts. At least you were until Morgan snapped in front of your face. Turns out you hadn’t been kind of watching for them after all.

You lifted a hand to slap hers away, pushing off the car to start heading for the treeline.

“I thought you said we shouldn’t phase unless we need to,” Reed stated. It sounded like it should have been a question. 

“I know what I said.”

“Okay, just making sure,” he said, causing you to look over your shoulder to glare at him just as the three of your made it to the trees. There wasn’t anyone in the parking lot that could see you, so you weren’t concerned with being as sneaky as you probably should have been. 

Nothing else was said until you were all in each other’s heads. There was a clearing just beyond the treeline, maybe a mile in, where you waited for Morgan and Reed to phase and join you. You had already phased, already basking in the feeling of giving in to your instincts a little. 

_ Are we going to Dylan’s?  _ The question was in Morgan’s voice, sounding in your head when she entered the clearing, trotting over to you leisurely. Her coat contrasted yours, black to your white with eyes that burned yellow, flakes of orange dancing around the pupil. They always reminded you of fire. 

_ Wasn’t planning to. I just want to run for a bit.  _ You answered in a thought.

Reed joined the both of you a second later, bouncing across the overgrown grass. He was always a little spastic when he phased. You walked alongside them for a while before breaking into a run, enjoying the feeling of the wind and all the scents that you recognized. You had heightened smell in human form but it was a thousand times stronger when you phased and a thousand times more satisfying.

That’s how you spent the rest of the day. Just running. It helped keep your emotions in check, the anger was slowly filtering out the longer you spent on four legs instead of two. The sun had gone down by the time the three of you made the trek back to the clearing and returned to the real world. It always left you with a sense of sadness, like you were made to be in wolf form more than in human form. 

* * *

Reed broke off from the group in front of the school with a declaration that he wanted to go to the library again and see if there was anything they might have missed. You didn’t know how you felt about him going alone but you got over it during the short walk to the dorm building. You were tired and you still had work to catch up on, which you completed after a long shower that mainly consisted of trying to scrub the smell of the forest off of you. It was still early when you fell asleep that night. You saw your father again as soon as you closed your eyes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize for being a day late, aside from the new semester starting for me, I also broke my shoulder so ya know, it's been fun but it's put me slightly behind in almost everything. Next update will hopefully be on schedule if not another Saturday upload just because of everything that has been going on for me lately.


	7. King of Arcadia

The week went on too slow for your liking and by the time Friday came around, you’d been reprimanded more than once for being late to class repeatedly or just completely skipping some of them. You had already skipped your morning classes, only deciding to show up to Ms. Grant’s class because you shared it with one of the twins, not that you bothered to pay any attention, the entire lecture became white noise as soon as you sat down. Nothing interesting happened as far as you could tell with how little you were paying attention. Your plan was to go through the rest of the day on autopilot. That’s what you’d been doing everyday this week, the only exception being the pack. Dylan was no less angry than he was before, Reed was still concerned about what was on the totem and had his nose in a book or computer whenever you saw him, and Morgan wisely kept her distance from you. You knew it was probably because your scent was out of control but you didn’t have the will to rein it in. 

To say you weren’t surprised when you were suddenly pulled into an empty classroom would be a fucking lie. Your instincts flared immediately until a familiar scent filled your lungs. You pulled yourself free and turned to glare at Reed, who looked like he hadn’t slept in about three days. 

“What the fuck, dude? I’ve been tr-” Reed began, getting cut off a second later when you slapped your hand over his mouth. 

“One,  _ calm _ the hell down. Two,  _ slow _ the hell down,” you kept your hand over his mouth until he nodded his understanding. You dropped your hand and stepped back, lifting a hand to prompt him to restart. 

“Where the hell have you been? I haven’t been able to get ahold of you since Monday and I know Morgan hasn’t either.”

“I’ve been talking to Dylan, it isn’t like I disappeared, okay?” You stepped around him, turning to lean against the teacher’s desk. The bell had already signalled the beginning of the next class and you could see the students in the hall start clearing out. 

“I figured you’d talk to me and Morgan too since you know, we literally spend all day in the same fucking building as each other.”

“What do you want, Reed?”

“I want to know what’s going on with you. You were all fine about everything happening and then you broke your own rules and now you’re not talking to anyone in the pack but Dylan. I get it, he’s your beta, he’s above the rest of us but come on, we’re a pack for a reason. We stick together. Or I thought we did.”

“Enough. I’ll tell you stuff you need to know, everything else is for me to know. You know the hierarchy just like I do, don’t start complaining now about the way things are supposed to work.”

Reed paused, thinking something over for a moment. There was a shift in his scent, but it wasn’t one you were expecting. He didn’t smell angry anymore. “Whatever, we’re meeting at Dylan’s tonight. I found something. You’re welcome to join us if you feel like being a good alpha again.”

The comment made you bristle but Reed was gone before you could react, leaving you to watch the door to the classroom swing back and forth. You released a breath you didn’t realize you were holding and pushed yourself off the desk, leaving the room. You stopped in the hallway, debating whether or not to go to your last class. Your need to go back to your dorm and just sleep won before you had a chance to properly think about why you shouldn’t do exactly that and before you knew it, you were already out of the main building and walking towards the dormitory. 

You were looking forward to the break coming up. Only another week to go and then you could get on a plane and get away from Arcadia Bay for a while. You felt equally happy and concerned about that. You didn’t want to leave the pack but you didn’t really want to stay either. You needed a break from everything, which is why you originally came to Arcadia Bay anyway. Your mother thought that the best way to get you away from the wolves in New York was to literally send you clear across the fucking country and straight into the hands of different wolves and apparently something bigger than that. Not that your mother would ever know that because you certainly weren’t going to tell her.

A buzzing in your pocket drew your attention just as you rounding the path towards the front door of the dorm building.

**[Morgan. 2:43PM]:** what the hell happened with reed??

**[Me. 2:44PM]:** nothing hes just pissed for no reason

**[Morgan. 2:44PM]:** really for no reason?? 

You read the message and stuffed your phone back in your pocket without responding, shaking your head as you climbed the stairs. The door opened before you even laid a hand on it and you instinctively stepped to the side, lifting your head from the ground to see who it was. A sigh left you before Victoria’s face even came into focus. She continued walking, stopping to your left with a look that you wanted to hate.

“Not today,” you said just as her mouth opened, pushing between her and Taylor to move inside. You didn’t stay to see how Victoria would react but you didn’t need to, your nose caught the concern in her scent before the door swung shut, leaving you with mild confusion as you entered your room. 

You locked the door and collapsed on your bed, sighing heavily as you stared at the ceiling. You would have to go to Dylan’s just to figure out what Reed found if nothing else. You figured it had something to do with the wolf you found on the totem. You had to admit you were kind of curious as to what he could have found considering the entire pack couldn’t find anything useful when it was a group effort that spanned across a day and a half. 

**[Me. 2:51PM]:** what time are you guys heading over to dylans

**[Morgan. 2:52PM]:** in a couple minutes

**[Morgan. 2:53PM]:** we’re both done with classes today we’re gonna spend the night

**[Morgan. 2:55PM]:** reed thinks everyones gonna want to talk after he tells us what he found

**[Me. 2:55PM]:** ok ill meet you guys there

You took a moment to gather yourself, resting your eyes and taking a few deep breaths. The silence drew your supernatural hearing out until you were able to hear everything in the building. Max was in her dorm with Chloe and Kate was drawing, or you assumed she was by the sound of a pencil scraping across paper. Victoria and Taylor were sitting on the steps talking about the next Vortex Club party, and there was you. You could hear the springs of the bed moving whenever you breathed. Your nostrils flared, searching for any scent that presented itself, that ended a few seconds later when you caught Chloe’s scent, the sheer intensity of it throwing you off. Of course that’s why they were alone in Max’ room being quieter than usual. That was enough to get you up and out of the room, your hearing decreasing to the range of a normal human. You locked your dorm and made for the exit, hurrying partly because you wanted to get away from the smell of Chloe being Chloe and partly because you wanted to be at Dylan’s before Reed and Morgan showed up. Victoria and Taylor looked up at you as you came out of the building but made no effort to move; you didn’t particularly feel like arguing at the moment so you stepped over them, humming as you started across the grass. 

You caught Morgan’s scent as you crossed in front of the main building towards the parking lot, Reed’s scent reaching you a second later. They were planning on running over, which you couldn’t really complain about since you broke the rule yourself the day after you set it. 

You spent a moment after getting into your car watching them sneak off towards the woods, wishing you could run with them. You could, but they didn’t need to have a free pass into your thoughts just yet. Not until you could make sense of them. 

* * *

Reed and Morgan showed up a few seconds after you walked into the house, giving you a little time to settle in before they got inside. Iz was behind the couch, standing directly behind where Dylan sat with a comforting hand on his shoulder. Your gazes met for a brief moment and you found understanding in his eyes. At least one of them understood why you had suddenly drawn back for everyone but Dylan. The latter met your gaze after it drifted from Israel, an unspoken question on the tip of his tongue, only to be kept there by your swift nod that promised an explanation later. 

Reed was only a little surprised to see that you were already there when he came in through the backdoor with his bag held in front of him, his free hand digging through it until a book with papers sticking out was produced. He took up the spot opposite Dylan on the couch and started flipping through it silently, clearly looking for something. Morgan looked a little relieved that you were already there, her gratitude coming in the form of a hand on you shoulder for a second as she passed by to head towards the kitchen. She brought a bottle of water for you when she came back, setting it on the coffee table in front of you before she fell into the other recliner. 

“Okay, so what did you find that’s so important, Reed?” Dylan asked as he relaxed into the cushions and lifted a hand to cover Israel’s. 

The wolf in question lifted his head briefly and looked straight at you before turning back towards the book, turning another page before standing and moving towards you. He bent down to show you the book, extending a finger to point to a black and white photo that took up a whole page. You looked it over with a curious gaze before turning towards Reed, confusion clearly written on your face. “What am I looking at, Reed?”

“Lycaon,” he explained simply, like everyone should know who that is.

“Who the fuck is that?” Dylan asked from across the coffee table.

“The first werewolf,” he explained, moving to sit back on the couch though he was still looking at you. “Before when we went to the library we were too focused on finding mythology revolving around Arcadia Bay when we should have just looked at mythology in general. Lycaon isn’t directly tied to the Bay but when it first settled by men, it became, like, dedicated ground.”

“That still doesn’t explain who he is or why he’s important.”

“He was the  _ first  _ werewolf, Dyl. The very first in recorded history. Everyone here knows that there’s some truth to every myth because we’re literally proof of it. We all thought werewolves were a myth until we became them. Lycaon was the first, that has to mean something.

“In Greek mythology, Lycaon was the King of Arcadia. Ring a bell? Anyone? Anyone?” Reed paused. “Exactly. The myth goes that he wanted to test whether or not Zeus was all-knowing, so he staged a feast and tried to feed Zeus human entrails. Zeus obviously knew this and punished him by turning him into a wolf. Lycaon had his sons help him, which, I mean, there were a lot of them, like fifty, and all of them were either killed by Zeus with his lightning bolt or turning into wolves as well.” 

“So, you think this has something to do with the totem?” You asked.

“I think it has everything to do with the totem. The animals on the totem formed a target and the wolf was in the middle, nobody knows where it came from and no tribe has ever claimed it. The town is named Arcadia frickin’ Bay, it’s basically staring us in the face. We wanted to know why things were seemingly being drawn to the Bay, the totem is why. The entire city, when it was first settled, was dedicated to King Lycaon and named after his kingdom. It’s a beacon for wolves.”

Everyone was silent while he explained, each of you taking a moment to look at each other when Reed reached into his bag and pulled out a stack of papers stapled together. You had to admit that it was making some sense and it was really the only thing you had to go by at this point. 

“I found something else too,” Reed started. “The hunters, the totem has the same effect on them. Hunters are born that way but most never learn to hunt because nothing happens that makes them. The twins’ parents were killed by wolves, supposedly, that’s what drew their hunter personality out. They’re not human any more than we are. That’s how they can tell what we are without needing us to tell them.”

“Wait, wait, wait. So the twins are only here because this totem thing pulled them in?” Dylan asked, which Reed responded to with a nod. “Okay, then why isn’t the Diaz family here? They’re wolves and probably closer to us than the twins were.”

“Because we’re already here. The totem only needs one pack here.”

“It  _ needs _ us here? For what?” You asked.

Reed hesitated when he looked back towards you. “That’s the thing, now that the twins are here and there’s a pack and a hunter in town, there’s something else that’s supposed to happen.”

“Which is?”

“A storm,” he answered.

“A storm? That’s it?”

“A flood, to be exact. From Zeus because there are werewolves back on this land. It’s a punishment. The totem draws in the wolves and Zeus wipes them out with a flood because he’s trying to finish punishing Lycaon. So, yes, a storm. You know, Zeus and lightning and Poseidon and water. We’re literally on the fucking coast.”

“Reed, come on, doesn’t that sound a little far-fetched?” Morgan asked, all the sudden sitting up and paying more attention.

“Yeah, I did, but then I started looking at past weather anomalies in the Bay and get this,” he began, standing to hand you a couple papers. “It’s happened before. A random hurricane that hit the town and wiped out half the people. It wouldn’t be weird except look at when they happened.”

You flipped through the pages, releasing a sigh. “February, April, October, December.” You read off.

“Only one of them falls in the normal hurricane season and every other weather pattern from that time shows no indication or reason for it. The only place that gets hit is here, surrounding cities and towns are always untouched and they always, always, kill a bunch of people, werewolves or not and through every storm, the totem still stands.”

“O-kay,” you breathed, setting the papers on the coffee table to rub your face. “Reed, how long have you been reading?” 

“Since Monday.”

“Great. Do me a favor and stop because I’m starting to regret wanting to know all this shit.”

“Tell me about it. I know it seems out there but it’s the only thing that really makes sense and you know as well as I do that the mythology really isn’t a lie.”  
“I know. Just..” you started, not really sure where you were planning on taking that sentence. “Just.. I don’t know. How the hell are we supposed to stop the storm or flood or whatever? Tear the totem out of the ground? Burn it? Do some reversal ritual to un-dedicate the city grounds to Lycaon?” 

You heard Reed start flipping pages again as you stood, excusing yourself to the kitchen. You heard the footsteps following you, recognizing them as Dylan’s. 

“What’s up?” He asked, grabbing your arm to turn you towards him. 

“How the fuck am I supposed to fix this? I can deal with hunters breathing down our necks easily enough. I can handle a violent pack, I can keep everything a secret but I have no idea how I’m supposed to fix this. Am I the only one who feels like this is too big for us?” 

Dylan didn’t answer but you could see the gears in his head turning. “I don’t know, okay? But when have we ever given up?”

“Dylan, we’ve never had to before this. This is the first real thing we’re gonna handle as a pack and it’s too big for a group as small as us.”

“Hey, listen. You’re the alpha. You’re  _ our  _ alpha. We’re all counting on you, okay? You start getting scared and nervous and everyones gonna lose their shit. You gotta be the strong one right now because everyone out there is gonna need to lean on you.” 

“I know, I know. But it’s my responsibility to keep you guys safe too. I can’t just pretend that everything’s gonna be fine because it really isn’t looking like it will be.”

“That’s fine, but you gotta keep everyone standing too.” 

“I know.” 

“Good,” Dylan grinned, throwing his arm around your shoulders as he pulled you back towards the living room. You separated when you got back in the room, you going back towards the recliner and him going back to the couch. 

“So.. what do we do?” Reed asked, quietly tucking the books and papers back into his bag. 

“Right now, nothing big. Reed, keep looking into it. If this is real, I wanna know everything we can, whether you think it’s something made up or not.” 

“What about break next week?”

“What about it?” You looked over at him, keeping his gaze. “Those of us that don’t live in town are gonna go home if we can. We’re gonna take a break. We don’t know when the storm or flood or whatever is going to come, try to figure something out about that, but we need the break. We need to clear our heads and get everything screwed on straight before we come back and try to make a plan. Until then, we’re gonna stick together and talk and try to figure some shit out, and I know I’ve been pulled back this week and it’s because this whole thing is getting bigger than anything else I’ve ever dealt with and I panicked, but we’re gonna figure this out, okay?” You looked around the room at each of them, projecting your scent when you saw fear in Morgan’s eyes and smelled nervousness in Reed’s scent. Dylan gave you a smile and a nod, Iz mirroring his actions. 

You weren't the best alpha. You were just an eighteen year old kid who got thrown into this world on a whim, left to try and put the pieces together in a dark room with no fucking light. You weren’t the best at it, but you had people in your corner to back you up. You weren’t the best alpha, but you had a great pack. That’s really all any alpha needs, good or bad.


	8. Christmas Break

You were happy to be home. The last week in Arcadia Bay was spent at Dylan’s house more or less, the three of you who went to Blackwell only leaving for class and to get clean clothes. Reed had found more information about the mythology that was haunting the pack now but none of it was overtly useful in your search to try and stop the storm. The entire pack still communicated almost all the time and you were more worried than you thought you’d be knowing Dylan and Israel had stayed in the Bay. They assured you that the twins had left town for break but you were still worried about everything else that was supposed to happen to the city. 

Aside from that, you tried to spend as much time as you could with your mother. You hadn’t told her about the pack in Arcadia Bay and you didn’t plan to. It was another reason for her to worry and neither of you needed that. 

You got home late into the afternoon carrying the gifts you’d bought for your mother and for the pack. When she asked about wh o they were for, you gave her a generic answer and refused to offer any more information. That got a weird look out of her but you managed to escape to your room without any other questions. You’d been locked away since then. Your room was a mess, exactly the way that it’d been when you first left for Blackwell. Christmas was still a couple days away, which was evident by the fact that your mom never decorated early. A tree had been thrown up but not much else. You didn’t have that kind of family, not since your father was killed. 

If you were a normal kid, you’d be out with your old friends, except they were all wolves and the very people your mother was trying to get you away from when she applied to Blackwell for you and bought you a plane ticket. You would try to go see them but you knew your mom would figure it out somehow that you went off looking for them. At least you didn’t have to hide at home. Your mother knew what you were and you didn’t have to hold back or pretend about anything because people rarely visited. 

You skillfully galloped down the stairs when the smell of dinner made it to your room. If there was anything you missed about being home, it was your mom’s cooking. You slid into a bar stool set up by the kitchen island, folding your arms on the faux marble before resting your chin on them. 

“Finally done locking yourself away?” She asked with a grin, kissing the side of your head as she moved around the island to get something from the fridge. 

“Finally smelled dinner,” you answered, mirroring her smile.

“How could I forget? Some days that’s all that would get you downstairs,” she tried to force a happy tone but you could still hear the sadness in her voice. You always isolated yourself after your first phase, the only thing that changed it was when your old pack found you. She always said she was thankful that they helped you but that being an alpha of a pack at such a young age couldn’t be good. “What’d you do today?”

You shrugged, still thinking back on what happened before you went to Arcadia Bay. “Shopping. I figured I put off Christmas shopping long enough, should probably do it before the stores get any more crowded.”

She smiled, idly stirring a pot on the stove. “Did you go see him?”

You lifted your head, picking at your fingers as you released a breath. The year following your father’s funeral, you visited his grave almost every day, to the point where your mom was concerned about the amount of time you spent there. You mostly just talked to him. You didn’t think anyone was listening but it made you feel better to speak to his headstone. You tried writing everything down at one point too but that didn’t make you feel any better, so you went and just talked to him. 

“Not yet. I’m thinking about going tomorrow,” you answered truthfully, though you weren’t confident about whether or not you would actually go. You’d never admit it because you hated how your mother just sent you away one day, but being away helped you move on. You couldn’t just go to his grave whenever you felt like something was going wrong, you had to deal with it yourself. 

“You should. It’s been a while.”

You nodded, still picking at the fingers of your right hand with your left. “Yeah,” you agreed quietly.

“Have you talked to Andrew or any of them?”

“Thought you wouldn’t want me to.”

“They’re still your friends,” she said your name through a sigh. “Just because I don’t think you should be their alpha doesn’t mean I do think you shouldn’t have any contact with them.”

“I haven’t talked to any of them since I left. No point rekindling relationships now when I’ll just leave again.”

She just hummed, reaching to turn the stove off. “Well, I don’t care if you do, if it means anything.” You nodded again. You weren’t planning on meeting up with the old pack but now that your mom had mentioned it, you might want to just to ask if they know anything about the myths that had become your reality. 

“It does, I just don’t know if it’s something I want to do,” you shrugged, meeting her gaze when she turned to look at you.

She hummed her answer, waving the wooden spoon in her hand around. “Table or couch?”

You pretended to put some thought into the question, pursing your lips and tipping your head back. “Couch.  _ Elf’ _ s on.”

“As good a reason as any, get some plates out, will you?”

You stood from the stool with a nod, moving around the island to get two plates from the cupboard. You set them beside the stove and moved back towards the fridge, pulling out a soda for yourself. 

You got dinner and moved to the living room, reclining into the couch to watch  _ Elf  _ for the seventh time since you’ve been home. There wasn’t much talking from then on. You and your mom traded small talk during the movie and laughed at all the parts you were supposed to and tried to pretend there wasn’t something missing for the fourth year in a row. 

* * *

You walked to the cemetery the next morning, enjoying the journey. It was still snowing and you still loved it despite the memories that were projected on the back of your eyelids because of where you were going. You hadn’t been gone long, only a few months, but everything felt new, like you weren’t supposed to be there. 

That feeling became almost unbearable when you were finally standing in front of his grave. You always hated how it looked. His name and two dates, and three words at the bottom that were supposed to sum up everything he was. You closed your eyes, inhaling and exhaling deeply before opening them. You always thought the image would be different when you opened them and you were always disappointed when it wasn’t. You didn’t think you’d ever stop wishing for it all to be a dream. 

“Hey, dad,” you started, your words turning to mist in the cold air, floating away only to be lost between the flakes of snow falling. “There’s another pack, and I haven’t told mom. Mostly because I don’t know how to. I know she’d try and convince me to leave them but I can’t. Not now, anyway,” you confessed, just because you never wanted to lie to him. “There are hunters too. I don’t know what to do about them, or about this huge problem that’s suddenly mine to deal with. I don’t know what to do anymore, dad. I haven’t stopped thinking about it since I found out but I’m not getting anywhere. It’s like I’m stuck.

“It’s like I’m stuck in this headspace where you never died and this isn’t real and someday I’ll wake up and go downstairs to see you making coffee and you’ll let me have some even though mom doesn’t want me to drink it, and I’m so angry. You fucking died and I’m so mad at you for dying,” you could feel the warmth on your cheeks from the tears but you were past the point of caring. “I keep thinking that if you didn’t die, everything would be fine. I never would’ve left home and we’d all be together like it’s supposed to be and it’s so hard not to notice that you’re not fucking here. When everything gets quiet because it’d be the perfect time for you to say something, it pisses me off. I’m so mad at you for dying. I’m so angry with everyone because they act like you never existed, they act like if they say something about you I’ll fall apart so no one says anything. I’m just.. I’m mad at you.” 

You stopped, trying to control your emotions so you didn’t have to phase to get them back in check, and then you walked away. You couldn’t help but think that if that was closure, you sure as fuck didn’t want it. You were angry at him even though you knew it wasn’t his fault, but you lived and he didn’t and it set a fire under your skin that you didn’t know how to put out. 

You left the cemetery, just walking with nowhere you wanted to go. Your phone buzzed in your pocket and you already knew it was your mom. She always knew when things happened. It must’ve been a mom thing. You let it go to voicemail. You didn’t have the energy to hold another deep conversation after that. At least not until you got home. For now, you just walked and it was so easy to blend in when there were hundreds of people around you. You kind of missed that. It was impossible to blend in in a town like Arcadia Bay where everyone knew everyone. It was a fact you hated because now you couldn’t help but recognize Victoria Chase. She was at the corner of the sidewalk, waiting with a group to cross the street and for some reason, you just stopped. Part of you felt weird because New York was  _ your  _ territory. It was your home and now Arcadia Bay was bleeding into it. 

You turned and walked into the first open door, only partially surprised that it was a Starbucks that probably had a hundred people over capacity in it. Your sense of smell came into focus, making you cringe as Victoria got closer. You had your back to the door, unsure of why you were even trying to avoid her. You waited until you thought she passed to turn around and move back towards the door. Sometimes having a supernatural sense of smell sucked when there were too many to keep track of because not only did Victoria not pass, but you also walked straight into her. 

The minor collision made you pause, your muscles immediately tensing. Of course something would follow you home and you weren’t really sure if you liked it more or less just because it wasn’t something supernatural. 

A scowl set in on her features until she looked up at you, leaving you confused ( _ again _ ) at the concerned expression that replaced it. 

“What?” You asked after a beat of silence where she just stared at you. When you didn’t get an answer you lifted a hand and waved it in front of her face a couple times, snapping once. Still, nothing. Victoria didn’t react at all until you pulled her out onto the sidewalk by her bicep to get you both out of the way of customers moving into the coffee shop. 

“What the fuck are you doing?” She spat, pulling her arm out of your grasp.

“Getting you out of the damn way since you decided to spontaneously become a statue the second you saw me.”

“No, I didn’t.”

“Okay,” you mumbled, running a hand over your face before turning away. You had about two steps on her when you felt a hand wrap itself around your forearm, making you stop and turn. “What?”

“Where are you going?”

“Home. I don’t really feel like dealing with your bitchiness when I don’t have to,” you answered, gently removing her hand from your arm. Victoria deflated a little at your words, causing your brow to raise. “Okay, what? Why the hell have you been acting so weird lately?”

Victoria craned her neck and avoided your gaze, breathing out a sigh. “How have I been acting weird?”

“You tell me.” 

“I hav-”

“Bullshit. It’s pretty obvious because one, you’re standing here actually talking to me like a semi-normal person and two, you haven’t tried to insult me in every sentence. Yet.”

“Like you have room to talk,” she mumbled. You heard it anyway.

“Excuse me?”

“Like you have room to talk about someone acting weird,” she said louder, more confidently. 

“Again, excuse me?” Your brows furrowed, your thoughts running with possibilities of what she meant.

“You know what I mean.”

“Oh, do I? Hate to break it to you, sweetheart, but I can’t read your mind.”

“Did you really think you could keep it a secret?” Victoria asked, flashing her trademark smirk that did nothing but piss you off. Your jaw clenched at her words, your hand reaching out to curl around her bicep. You pulled her along the sidewalk and into a crowded cafe, weaving through the people to the back corner because it was the most secluded. You didn’t let her go until you’d guided her into a seat, moving to sit across from her.

“Keep what a secret?” You asked, tilting your head slightly. Your expression looked friendly enough but your tone held no room for argument. 

Victoria faltered slightly, her facade cracking. 

“Keep what a secret, Victoria?” You enunciated every word, speaking them slowly. Your ears caught how her heart rate had sped up in the last few seconds and you could smell the nervousness coming off her in waves. 

“You know-”

“I know what?”

“Do you really want me to say it?”

“Yes, I do.”

The green in Victoria’s eyes were burning when she looked at you, probably swallowing her fear. “That you’re a werew-” She cut herself off when you went for your phone, pulling it out and quickly tying in Dylan’s number. You needed to let him know that the twins had told someone, at least you assumed it was the twins, but you also used it as an excuse to stand and walk away from Victoria because you really had no fucking idea how to handle that. 

You made it out of the cafe before you were stopped again, your conversation with Dylan cut short when Victoria pulled the phone out of your hand and hung up. Your anger flared, your teeth clenching as you watched her, waiting for her to explain. 

“You can’t just walk away!”

You snatched your phone back and put it in your pocket. “And why not?”

“Seriously? What the fuck?” 

You closed your eyes and breathed a sigh, stuffing your hands in your jacket pockets. “Which one told you?”

“What?”

“Don’t play dumb now, Victoria. It doesn’t suit you.”

She crossed her arms before answering, side-stepping towards a storefront to get out of the way of everyone else on the sidewalk. “Anna.”

“Of course. Of fucking course.” 

“Is it true?”

“What do you think?”

“Look, I’m just telling you what they told me.”

“Did they tell you they shot someone with an arrow too? Or that before they got to Arcadia they were combing California for people like me and torturing them?”

She paused, looking uncomfortable with the direction the conversation was going. “No,” she answered quietly. 

“Didn’t think so. Who else have you told?”

“What makes you think I’ve told people?”

“Because you’re Victoria Chase and I’m not an idiot.”

“I wouldn’t do that,” she threw at you. “I’m not a horrible person.”

“Do I have to remind you what you did to Kate?” The second the words left you you wished you could pull them back in. It was a low blow, uncalled for even against someone like Victoria, who visibly shrunk at the intonation. 

“Believe what you want, but I wouldn’t,” Victoria mumbled. You had to be surprised at the difference in her, like she was someone different outside the Arcadia Bay city limits. “It’s true, then?”

“If the next thing you ask for is proof, you’re not gonna get any,” you answered, ignoring the last bit of the conversation. “No point in lying if the twins are just telling you shit.”

“Why do you hate them?”

“Oh, Jesus. Look, if we’re gonna talk about this I’m gonna need to sit down,” you said, already moving. You went back towards the cafe you’d stormed out of, making a beeline for the register instead of for the table. Victoria stopped beside you when you were halfway through your order, reciting hers afterward. You could sense a protest on the tip of her tongue when you paid for both drinks and you shut it down with a look. 

The table you’d found before was empty so you slid into the seat with the coffee you’d ordered held between both hands. 

“I don’t want to get you involved any more than whatever the twins have told you, okay?”

“Why?”

“Oh, I don’t know, maybe because you’re human? You don’t need to be in this world, believe me, it isn’t some fucking party for the cool kids,” you leaning forward, your elbows resting on the table now. Your voice was quieter now that things had calmed down inside the cafe. 

“Well, I already know so you might as well just answer my questions.”

“Excuse me?”  
“You say that too much,” she scoffed, making you throw her a pointed look. You thought back to Dylan and Israel and Morgan and Reed. Even if you didn’t say anything, all she would have to do is ask one of the twins. They’d already told her about you, they’d probably tell her more if she was interested enough. 

“I don’t hate them,” you answered eventually, your words sounding unconvincing even to your own ears. “It’s just part of being involved in all this shit. The hunters and the prey don’t tend to get along very well.”

“Hunters?”

“What, did they not tell you that?”  
Victoria shook her head, her gaze being cast down to stare at her cup.

“What did they tell you, exactly?” You asked, your tone losing its edge. You couldn’t help but empathize with her a little. If you knew anything about the twins, they just threw her into the deep end blindfolded. 

Victoria looked up at you again, just staring for a few seconds. “They showed up at a Vortex Club party and found me in the VIP section, they didn’t tell me anything other than you being a we-” she paused, looking around briefly before turning back to you. You nodded in understanding. 

“Is that why they’ve been following you around lately like they’re trying to take Taylor and Courtney’s spots?”

“Pretty much. I didn’t believe them at first, who would? But then they started  _ showing  _ me things.”

“Things?”

“Pictures. Of you and then a wolf and they told me it was you.”

Your brows furrowed at that; you would’ve known if they’d been trailing you whenever you went running. “What did the wolf look like?”

“Black.”  _ Morgan. _

“Black,” you repeated. “Any other pictures?”

“No. Just the one.”

“And that got you to believe what they told you?”

“Yeah,” she answered, lacking confidence. “I mean, the picture was literally the wolf turning back into a human and it was a feminine figure so they told me it was you and I didn’t really have anything to deny it with.” You nodded at her words, pulling your phone out. 

**[Me. 12:56PM]:** before i said no phasing did you ever feel like someone was following you when you ran

**[Morgan: 12:57PM]:** thats kind of ominous

**[Morgan. 12:57PM]:** but no 

**[Me. 12:58PM]:** victoria knows abt me because they told her and showed her a pic of you phasing back i dont think they know whos who when we phase

**[Morgan. 12:58PM]:** wait wait wait what

**[Morgan. 12:58PM]:** how the hell do you know that

**[Me. 12:59PM]:** victorias in new york were talking

**[Me. 12:59PM]:** pass the news on to everyone else ok ill text you later 

**[Morgan. 12:59]:** be safe

You dropped your phone on the table after shutting the screen off, sighing loudly as you forced your gaze back to Victoria. “Sorry, I had to.. talk to someone.”

She made a hum of acknowledgement. “So?”

“So what?”

“Are you gonna explain everything else to me?”

“Why do you want to know? Honestly, because this isn’t some show you can watch from home. Knowing means being in danger.”

“Because I need to know if I’m in danger just by letting Anna and Connor around me.”

You cringed at that, looking down to cover it. “I’ll tell you what I know about them, and it isn’t much. I honestly don’t fucking know what they’re capable of. That’s the problem I’m running into. I know they’re hunters, and I know they’re dangerous to people like me but I’ve never heard a story about them hurting a human.” Despite the lack of useful information in what you said and the sheer will you injected into your tone to make Victoria not worry, she started to look like she was going to throw up. “Okay, breathe,” you instructed, reaching across the table to pry the cup of coffee from her grasp before she squeezed it hard enough to break it. You started pulling back when she grasped your hand instead, making you flinch slightly at the sudden movement. 

“Tell me the truth,” she demanded.

“I just did.”

“No, you told me what you thought would make me back down and it wasn’t the truth.”

“Victoria, I don’t know if they’d hurt a human.”

“And you?”

“Me what?” You asked, noting how her grip on your hand was slowly tightening. 

“Would they hurt you?”

_ They already have  _ is what you wanted to say, it was sitting on your tongue and in an effort to swallow it back down you didn’t say anything. Except that wasn’t good either because Victoria interpreted it as a ‘yes’. 

“What did they do?” She asked, pulling your hand closer to her. You didn’t really have a choice but to let her. Well, you could have pulled your hand back, but maybe you didn’t want to. She knew about you, which made everything more real. She would find out about the pack eventually and that alone piqued your protective instincts. 

“Nothing?” You tried, fully expecting it to fail. Victoria’s nails dug into your palm. “Okay, okay,” you reached across the table with your free hand, laying it on top of hers, your thumb moving across her knuckles to try and get her to ease her grip. Telling her the truth meant telling her about the pack, which you were much less interested in doing. Except she had your hand in a death grip and you kind of needed it. “They didn’t hurt me directly, per se. They just..” you paused, trying really hard to talk yourself out of telling her. “They hurt someone I’m responsible for.” You cringed at the wording. 

“Someone you’re responsible for?”

“Yeah,” you mumbled.

“What exactly does that mean?” She asked, her grip loosening the slightest bit. You wouldn’t have noticed it if you weren’t focusing on it so much. 

“My pack,” you all but whispered.

“Your what?”

“My pack,” you said, louder than before. “They attacked someone in my pack. It was a warning shot, it didn’t kill him, not to say whatever they do next will be the same way. Three strikes and you’re out and we’re already up to two.”

“Your pack,” she echoed, the death grip back. “Those other two you’re always around at school, I can’t remember their names, are they..?” She trailed off, leaving you to nod. “Okay.”

“Okay?”

“Okay,” she repeated. “What do you want me to say? It’s kind of a lot to take in.”

“I know. Believe me, I know. No one gets the smooth sailing version of everything when it comes to this shit. We’re all thrown in the deep end when it happens and some are lucky enough to find people to help them,” you thought about Andrew and Charlie and even Abby. Your old pack helped you come to terms with what you were and taught you nearly everything you knew. The rest was up to your instincts when they were called for. 

“Is that what you’re doing with your pack now?” Victoria asked. She still hadn’t let go of your hand.

“Kind of. They weren’t a group when I got to Arcadia Bay and we didn’t come together for a while after I got there. The first person I found was hurt and I helped him get better, so he decided to follow me. Then the two at Blackwell came and then another from out of town who only stayed because we were there.” 

“What’s it like?” She asked suddenly, subtly giving your hand a squeeze. 

“What’s what like?”

“Being a- you know.”

“I mean, I don’t really think it’d make much sense to you because you haven’t experienced it,” the look Victoria gave you was enough to get you talking again. “It’s like feeling fine for the first time in your life. It’s like you’re hyperfocusing on everything all at once but it doesn’t become white noise, it actually makes sense. It’s.. it’s knowing who you are for once in your life.” You weren’t looking at her when you finished; your eyes had focused in behind her, outside the floor to ceiling windows. You were watching the people bustle across the storefront but you heard every breath they took individually. Sometimes it amazed you how much sense it made at times.

“Must be nice,” she mumbled, her eyes widening when you suddenly locked your gaze to hers. “You heard that?”

“Wolf thing,” you explained with a shrug. Her eyebrows lifted in acknowledgement and she let go of your hand. You hesitated to pull it back to your side of the table, surprising both Victoria and you. You did pull it back after a beat, wrapping your fingers around your coffee cup. You didn’t need the warmth it offered but you needed the comfort. 

Victoria was watching the crowd inside the coffee shop now, her eyes unfocused as they moved from one thing to the other. She absentmindedly reached for her own cup, knocking it over in the process. The liquid splashed over the back of her hand, the pain it caused being accentuated with a curse from the blonde. You reached forward on instinct, taking her burned hand in yours and using your other to lift the cup and reach for some napkins to clean the spill. A gasp made you look back at Victoria, her eyes glued to the hand that covered hers. Thick, black tendrils were running along the back of your hand and into your forearm. You didn’t even realize you’d been taking her pain. You kept ahold of her hand but reached forward with your other to pull the sleeve of your jacket further down to hide the evidence but that didn’t stop Victoria from staring. 

“What are you doing?” She asked, her gaze flicking up to meet yours for a second.

“Taking your pain,” you explained, wincing slightly. Taking someone else’s pain meant you felt it and you never got used to that fact, no matter how many times you’d done it. “Wolf thing,” you said again at her questioning look. 

“Oh,” she paused, her free hand covering yours, almost like she wanted to feel the lines that seemed to pulsate with black. “Thanks.”

* * *

You were exhausted by the time you got home that night. Between visiting your father’s grave and spending hours talking with Victoria in that little coffee shop, your energy had been effectively sapped. So when you walked through the door you mumbled a greeting to your mom and walked over to the couch only to faceplant into the cushions.

“Bad day?” You heard her ask from the doorway, concern lacing her words.

“Kind of a good one, actually,” your words were muffled since you refused to remove your face from the fabric.

“Hate to see what a bad one looks like then,” there was humor in her voice this time. You didn’t respond, instead you just listened to her footsteps retreat back to the kitchen. “I’ll wake you up when it’s time to eat.” You made a sound of acknowledgement and pulled a blanket off the back of the couch, submitting yourself to sleep. 


	9. The Truth

“I think I’m gonna go see Andrew today.”

Your mom paused in the middle of making breakfast, trying quickly to cover it up with an overexcited voice. “That’s good.” You noticed the slight shift in her scent but she masked it well.

“How late are you working today?”

“Six. I shouldn’t be late so just make sure you’re home by then, okay?” She plated the food and set it in front of you with a smile. “I’m gonna go get ready, don’t leave without saying goodbye.” You nodded your answer, already bringing the fork to your mouth. Your thoughts went to Victoria. You weren’t really worried she would tell anyone the majority of what you told her but she might let it slip to the twins that she knew more than what they were saying. You didn’t really care. They already knew about the pack and they wouldn’t be in any more danger than they were before. The only thing that  _ did  _ worry you was that Victoria was potentially in more danger than she was before just by knowing the things she did now. 

Your mom’s footsteps pulled you back into reality to find that you’d finished eating already. You stood and took the plate to the sink, kissing your mother on the cheek as she poured herself a cup of coffee. “I’ll text you when I’m home.” 

“Be safe,” you heard her call when you left the kitchen and moved towards the front door, sliding into your boots and jacket. 

“I will,” you answered before opening and stepping through the door, pausing on the front steps to fish your phone out of your pocket.

**[Me. 8:13AM]:** hey its me

**[Andrew. 8:14AM]:** hey.

**[Andrew. 8:14AM]:** you back in town?

**[Me. 8:15AM]:** for a bit. where are you? i got a couple questions

**[Andrew. 8:15AM]:** old hangout

**[Andrew. 8:15AM]:** the rest arent here its just me

**[Me. 8:16AM]:** be there in a few

* * *

The whole trip only took ten minutes. The hangout was an abandoned subway station that you could only access by one of the tunnels, but you had to climb around the rubble to actually get to the area that wasn’t caved in already. You’d just slipped under the last rock before the station when you heard Andrew.

“Well, if it ain’t the big bad wolf.” Andrew approached you with a grin, immediately drawing you against his large frame. He was older than you by a couple years, an easing going omega who’d taught you just about everything about being a good alpha. 

“Well, if it isn’t the bigger badder wolf,” you greeted, mirroring his smile as he directed you over towards the only subway car that remained in the station. When you and the pack first found it you’d ripped the old seats out and made a makeshift den. Ironically, you’d named it the Wolf Den. “So, what’s up? How’ve you been?”

You took a moment to sit down and lean forward to rest your elbows on your knees. “I’ve been.. okay. Running into a lot of problems lately.” 

“New pack?”

“Yeah. Not by my doing. They just found me and I’m an alpha, so.”

“Yeah? Reminds me of back in the day.” Andrew was smiling at you but you could tell it was an attempt to calm you down. 

“Except we didn’t run into half the problems I’m running into with them.”

“Problems?”  
“Like, Greek god problems.” 

Andrew nodded at that, sitting back in his seat. “Figured there’d be a day you’d get yourself involved with that shit.”

“What?” You turned your body towards him, completely in focus.

“Lycaon?”

“Yeah, but that’s really all I know. We’re still trying to figure stuff out. What can you tell me about him?” 

He ran a hand through his hair and stood, walking over to a pile of books in the corner. He dug through them and came up with a black one, thick and dusty. It looked like it belonged in a fucking library. He came back over to you and dropped it in your lap and sat back down. “It’s all in there. The truth is in there, not the bullshit myths you’ll find if you google the guy. He’s real. Or he was. All that’s left of him are descendents spread all around the world but most never know. My dad gave me the book after my first phase, told me it was the history of my ‘kind’.” 

“That sounds not at all ominous,” you commented, leaning back in your chair so you could flip through the book. Andrew’s hand caught yours suddenly, stopping you from flipping the cover open. You lifted your gaze to connect with his. “What?”

“Before you read it, go home and talk to your mom.” 

“What?” It was safe to say you were more than concerned now. The only time Andrew had met your mom was when she came to drag you away from the pack and made you abandon them. “Why do I need to talk to my mom?”

“You just do, okay? Trust me. Just talk to your mom and then read the book. It’ll help with whatever issues you’re having with the new pack if it has to do with Lycaon,” Andrew wasn’t smiling anymore and his tone basically forced the seriousness of the situation down your throat. “Go home, kid.”

Your eyes narrowed at him when he let go of your hand, apparently trusting you not to just read the damn book right there. His scent wasn’t giving anything away and his heartbeat was steady and calm, making it easier for you to listen. “Where’s Charlie and Abby?”

“I thought I said go home.”

“And I came here to ask some questions and I believe ‘where is Charlie and Abby’ qualifies as a question.”

“Charlie doesn’t come around much anymore. Abby stops by sometimes,” he answered, settling into his seat.

“Why?”

“Charlie’s part of a new pack. I can’t stand the alpha and neither can Abby. We were surprised when Charlie first told us about him.”

“Who’s the alpha?” You questioned, trying to sort through your memory of the different alphas in the city.

“New guy that came down from Canada. Sam something, I don’t fuckin’ know. Word has it he killed his previous alpha to get his status. The guy just doesn’t sit right with me.” Andrew waved a hand dismissively, his scent changing as he spoke. 

“What about Abby?”

“She didn’t join the pack with Charlie. He tried to recruit us both and I humored him until I actually met the guy. Abby was the same way. She’s just focusing on school. She know she got into NYU. Biochemistry,” he paused, fishing a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket. He pulled one out and put it to his lips, lighting it with a match. “She stops by sometimes but mostly it’s just me. We keep in touch, kinda had to after you left.” You nodded, pointing your head towards the floor. You forgot about the guilt of leaving New York the second you found yourself the alpha of a new pack. “Hey, don’t feel guilty. You had to get out, we all understand why.”

“Doesn’t make me feel any better,” you commented, forcing a smile when you lifted your head to look at him.

“Yeah? It never does,” he chuckled, pausing to blow smoke circles into the air. You watched the rings fade in the yellow light before looking back to him. “Look, none of us blame you for leaving, you know that right?” You nodded. “Good, and if you ever need help with the shit you got going on in whereverthefuck, just give me a call and I’ll be on the first flight out.”

“You don’t have to do that, Andy. We’re not in a pack anymore.”

“We’re not a pack anymore,” he repeated, seemingly agreeing with you. “But you’re still my alpha, in theory if not in any other way.” You grinned over at him, looking down at the book in your lap with a deep breath. You ran your thumb across the cover, noticing the dust line you created. “And I’m sure Abby has the same thought process that I do. Just because we’re not a pack anymore doesn’t mean we can’t stick together if we need to.”

You nodded in response to his words, a sigh leaving you before you stood up, tucking the book under your left arm. “I’ll let you know if I need anything, okay? It was good to see you again.”

Andrew put his cigarette out and stood, giving you another hug. “Come back this summer so we can catch up before you head off to wherever, ‘kay?” 

“Yeah, yeah. Like I could forget about you,” you joked, a real smile gracing your features as you pulled away. “I can show myself out.” You waved one last time before stepping out of the car and back onto the station platform, retracing your steps back to the pile of rubble with a cleared out spot at the bottom. You paused before you ducked down and looked over your shoulder, seeing Andrew standing in the doorway to the subway car with another cigarette between his lips. You weren’t lying; it was good to see him again. You missed him and Abby and even Charlie, though it seemed that the last one had moved on fairly quickly. 

You smiled at Andrew again before ducking down and climbing under the rocks, carefully pushing the book ahead of you so you didn’t damage it. You didn’t stand back up until you reached the entrance to the tunnel and was reintroduced to the sun. You kind of wished you’d brought your backpack now because you didn’t really like the idea of lugging a big ass book through the city. The book was tucked back under your arm after you crawled your way back up to the sidewalk. Your plan to head home was cut short a foot in by your phone going off. 

**[Unknown. 9:18AM]:** hey

**[Unknown. 9:18AM]:** its victoria 

You quickly saved the contact before replying.

**[Me. 9:19AM]:** dont take this as me being mad but howd you get my number

**[Victoria. 9:20AM]:** max gave it to me

**[Victoria. 9:21AM]:** just wanted to see what you were doing today. my parents are still working to no ones surprise 

**[Me. 9:21AM]:** and you wanted to hang out

**[Me. 9:22AM]:** cant get enough of me huh

**[Victoria. 9:22AM]:** in your dreams

**[Victoria. 9:23AM]:** i need to go shopping and just didnt wanna go alone

**[Me. 9:23AM]:** sure just gimme a few 

**[Victoria. 9:24AM]:** want me to pick you up or 

**[Me. 9:24AM]:** sure

You sent her your address and then put the phone away, figuring it was best to get home as quick as you could. You didn’t know where she was staying and you wanted to avoid as many questions as you could. 

* * *

A black Sedan stopped in front of the house a minute after you got inside. You took the stairs two at a time and dropped the book off in your room before making the trip back downstairs. Your phone vibrated in your pocket and you figured it was Victoria telling you she was here so you didn’t bother responding as you stepped outside, taking a second to lock the door before walking over to the car. Victoria waved at you as you approached, her eyes hidden by sunglasses despite the sun being hidden behind winter clouds. You opened the door and slid into the passenger seat, relaxing into the comfortable seat. 

“Hello to you too,” Victoria said from beside you as she pulled back onto the street. 

“Hi, Victoria,” you said, overly happy. 

The blonde regarded you out of the corner of her eye with a sigh before looking back towards the road. “Any suggestions on where to go?”

“Manhattan Mall,” you suggested with a shrug. “It’s on West 33rd.” 

Victoria nodded, reaching for her phone to set the GPS up. She caught you looking and shrugged. “I don’t fucking know this city like the back of my hand, okay? You forget that I’m not from here.” 

“I didn’t forget.” 

She shook her head while setting the phone on the dashboard, appearing to put her focus into driving. You didn’t talk much after that. For most of the trip you just stared at the window and kept thinking about why Andrew would want you to talk to your mom before reading the book he gave you. By the time the car stopped you weren’t any closer to figuring anything out, which frustrated you. Victoria was grumbled something about stupid drivers when you zoned back in, turning to watch her scowl at the cars passing as she tried to find a place to park. 

“I fucking hate New York,” Victoria commented five minutes later when she finally found a place to park. She’d been cut off about three times, each one making her attitude worse than the last. 

“Hey, there’s nothing wrong with the city. Just the people,” you shot back before getting out of the car, grinning the entire time.

“Fuck off,” you heard after Victoria got out, shooting you a glare over the top of the car. 

“Nobody said you had to go shopping today. You should have known it’d be bad considering Christmas is literally two days away.” 

Victoria just made a face at you once you’d met up behind the car and began the walk into the three-story building. “I’m not stupid, you know.” 

“Never said you were.” 

She just grumbled as the both of you weaved through the crowds to actually get inside the building. You’d been in the mall a couple times before but generally avoided it because of how busy it was even on a normal day. You could see the third floor from the ground floor if you looked up, the floors above had a cutout in the middle which was both good and bad. Good because it looked nice, bad because it bunched everyone together because of the smaller walking space. 

“Where to first?”

“Eh,” she responded, stopping a few feet into the ground floor to look at the illuminated map of the mall. “Don’t you even think about making a joke about this,” she turned to look at you suddenly. “I want to go to Victoria’s Secret.” 

You didn’t say anything but the smile you wore was enough to get Victoria to smack you on the arm as you walked past her, leading the way to the store. She scowled as she followed, slowly shrinking into herself. It was a different side to her you didn’t really mind seeing. 

You stopped in front of the store after a few minutes of pushing your way through the crowd, cursing under your breath as you did. Victoria just kept walking, pulling you into the store by your hand, only stopping when an employee stepped in front of her.

“Hi! Aren’t you two cute?” The employee said, a little too loudly for your liking. As soon as she said that you and Victoria pulled your hands away from each other and you took a step to the side without really thinking about it. “Oh. Well, is there anything I can help you with?” 

Victoria quickly shook her head and waited until the woman was gone to grab your hand again and pull you around the store. You stood there more than anything, letting Victoria look at what she wanted without really giving any input on anything. Ten minutes of being pulled around went by before you pulled your phone out with your free hand to play a game. It was going fine until you blinked and suddenly your phone was no longer in your hand, prompting you to look up.

“Yes?”

“Usually when two people do something together, they talk.”

“I prefer silence, actually.” Victoria glared at you but you could tell that it lacked it’s usual malice. “And it’s already too fucking loud in here.”

“Not loud enough,” she grumbled, shoving your phone back into your hand. She took a last look at the display in front of her before turning to drag you out of the store. Seeing as how she still had her hand wrapped around yours, you didn’t have a choice but to follow. You pocketed your phone just as you exited the store. You stopped, anchoring Victoria to that spot. She shot you a questioning look that you answered with a pointed finger aimed at a Starbucks on the other side of the store. “I want coffee.” Victoria just rolled her eyes and started pulling you again, and after a fifteen minute wait because of all the people who also wanted coffee, she was pulling you into another store. You stood by the entrance and sipped on your coffee as Victoria separated from you to look around. It was a high end makeup store that didn’t interest you at all considering you didn’t wear makeup and probably never would. Eventually you started walking around, just looking at everything. It looked nice, even if you didn’t really care. You made your way over to Victoria to stop behind her, taking quiet steps until you were directly behind her, bent over slightly so your mouth was next to her ear. “Hey.”

“Fuck!” Victoria jumped and turned, a bottle of concealer clutched in her raised hand, ready to be thrown. “Don’t fucking do that!”

You couldn’t help but laugh as you lifted your own hand to gently push hers down and eliminate the threat of being hit in the face with makeup. “Easy, girl.”

“Fuck off.” Victoria turned back and put the item down, elbowing you softly in the stomach as she turned to walk to the next display.

“Is that your favorite quote or something?” You followed after her, bringing the coffee you were carrying to your mouth before it too, was yanked out of your hand. You paused for a second and just stared at Victoria as she threw you a challenging look while taking a drink from your cup. “You know, I’m starting to think you’re a little kleptomaniac.” 

Victoria just shrugged, keeping the coffee as she turned and left the store, leaving you to scramble after her. 

* * *

When you got home hours later, you realized that you didn’t really hate spending time with Victoria like you thought you would. It surprised you that you were able to forget that she knew what you were. She never brought it up and didn’t make any little comments about it and it was a nice change, to have a human know about you and not be questioned within an inch of your life. Spending the day out also let you get your mind off Andrew and everything he told you that morning. 

The book was still in your room, probably sitting there waiting to be read, but instead of climbing the stairs you diverted towards the living room, content with just flipping through the variety of Christmas movies on while you waited for your mom to get home. You didn’t even know  _ what  _ you were supposed to ask her, let alone what to expect as an answer. Part of you just wanted to read the damn book, another part wanted to call Andrew, and the most prominent part just wanted to wait and see what the hell your mom knew that you didn’t, and how Andrew knew about it. You’d only been in Arcadia Bay for a few months but it felt longer than that. It felt like you hadn’t been home in years and now it was a place you didn’t belong, no matter how many times you came back. You fell asleep feeling like you did last summer when your mother told you she was sending you to Blackwell. 

* * *

It was the first time you dreamt of the storm. It was when you first found out when it would happen. It was the first step down a dangerous path. That’s all you kept thinking, over and over, like a mantra. 

_ You’re not gonna see the end of this. _

Except that voice wasn’t yours and you couldn’t recognize it. The storm was just water. A wall of it closing in on Arcadia Bay like after it hit, it would be years before the waves fled the shoreline again. Then the lightning came. It was so loud but you couldn’t hear anything. You were facing it, just watching it happen when everything turned black, so you stared at that instead. What was the quote? ‘Stare too long into the abyss and the abyss stares back,’ or something like that. 

And you stood there, facing the abyss, impossibly alone, thinking over and over again, repeating it like a mantra:  _ I’m not gonna see the end of this. _

* * *

The first thing you noticed when you woke up was the hand on your shoulder. Your instincts flared, ready to defend yourself. Your claws were forming, digging into the couch, ready to strike. You would have had the scent not flooded your lungs, drowning the aggression that had bubbled up. 

“Bad dream?” Your mother asked, the pressure on your shoulder intensifying before back off, becoming nonexistent when she stepped away from the couch. You didn’t realize you hadn’t opened your eyes until the panic set in because you were still facing blackness. Not that it was better when you opened them. Everything came back into focus but the edges of your vision were still dark, blurring into a haze if you moved your head too quickly. 

“Yeah,” you mumbled after your mom was too far away to hear you. 

“How was Andrew?” She asked as she walked back into the living room, weaving around the furniture towards the staircase. She stopped at the base, one hand resting on the rail as she turned to look at you briefly. 

It took an extended moment for the words to process. “Oh, yeah. He’s good.” You left it at that. It was enough to satisfy your mom because she ascended the stairs after a beat. You watched her go, the conversation with Andrew flooding back into your memory. It distracted you from the dream for the few minutes that went by before your mom came back downstairs. 

“Hey, mom, can I ask you something?” You asked, standing from the couch and following her into the kitchen. You slid into a bar stool, crossing your arms over the counter and resting your chin on them. She started taking calculated steps around the room, gathering what she needed to make coffee. You always thought she drank too much of it.

“Anything.” She smiled at you as she passed, measuring out the right amount of grounds. 

“Andrew told me I needed to talk to you. He didn’t say what about and honestly, I really don’t even know where to start, so..” you paused, trying to find the right words. “Do you know what I’m supposed to ask you?”

The look you got in return just confused you. Your mom froze and tried too hard to cover it up and plastered a smile on her face before she turned to face you. “I’m not really sure.” 

It was a generic answer, you knew that much. You let it go for the time being, mumbling an acknowledgement to her words before standing and heading upstairs. You should have just read the damn book first. Somehow your phone ended up in your hand before you ended up in your bedroom and you didn’t hesitate to call Andrew.

“Hey, kid,” he greeted. 

“Hey,” you moved further into the room, digging around for the book and bringing it onto your desk as you slid into the chair in front of it. “Can you tell me what I’m supposed to be talking to my mom about? Because I tried, it was a shitty attempt, but I’m kinda in the dark here, Andy.”

You heard him sigh on the other end of the line. “I can’t be the one to tell you, you have to ask her.”

“I have no idea what to ask! How am I supposed to ask something when I literally have no fucking clue what you’re talking about?”  
“If I tell you what to ask I might as well just tell you everything.”

“Well, that’d sure make this whole thing fucking quicker.”

“Ask her about the book, and that’s all I’m saying so don’t ask for any more hints.”

You rubbed your eyes with your free hand, sighing heavily. “Fine. Thanks, you know, for nothing.”

“No problem,” the smile you heard in his voice made you smile, but you wish it didn’t. “Don’t be a stranger, okay?”

“I’ll try. See you,” you hung up a second later, shoving your phone in your pocket and gathering the book before making your way back downstairs. 

“What were you yellin’ about?” Your mom asked as you hit the last step from the spot she’d taken up on the couch.

“This,” you explained simply, opting to walk over and set the book beside her before retreating to one of the recliners. Again, she froze. She didn’t hide it as well this time though. 

“What is this?”

“You tell me. Andrew gave it to me this morning and said I needed to talk to you before I opened the cover.” 

“Andrew gave it to you?”

You nodded, leaning forward to rest your elbows on your knees. “Anything I should know?”

“No,” she answered curtly, pushing the book farther away from her.

“No?”

“No,” she repeated. 

“Okay,” you mumbled, pausing for a moment to absorb the sudden shift in the atmosphere of the room. “Can I ask another question?”

“Sure.”

“What do you know about Lycaon?”

That one got her attention, her head slowly turning away from the television to look at you. You stared back, waiting patiently for an answer. “Why?”

That was the question. You had two options, and even though you knew which one would most likely get you an answer, you still didn’t want to say it. “There’s a pack in Arcadia Bay, and some shady shit going down that I got roped into and Lycaon is in the middle of everything. Andrew wouldn’t tell me anything but he gave me the book and said ask you about it. So I am.”

“Another pack?” You didn’t miss the spark of anger in her scent. You were an alpha, but she was still your mother, and you broke eye contact as a form of subtle submission. 

“What did you expect? They found me, just like the one here did. You can’t keep shipping me from city to city to try and get me away from them and I won’t leave Arcadia Bay until I stop whatever’s going on.” 

“I expected you to keep yourself out of trouble,” the anger was seeping into her tone now, her scent changing again to something you couldn’t place.

“By sending me to Arcadia Bay? If you know something about Lycaon like Andrew implied you do, you have to know about the history of Arcadia too,” now your patience was starting to wear thin. She’d never tried to beat around the bush with you before when it came to things like this. “Why can’t you just be honest with me? You’ve never lied to me before about anything.”

She didn’t say anything else for a few moments. Her eyes were set on the book still, the television long forgotten. You didn’t fail to notice the change in scent coming from her, though it was morphing to something familiar. Something you remember smelling after your father died, for the first few days you were home after everything that happened. It was comforting, soothing the anger that was building inside you, an inkling of reason taking root in your thoughts. 

Your head tilted, your nose lifted slightly to the air as you focused on it, your eyes moving from your mom’s hand on the book to her face only to find her staring back at you. “You lied to me,” you said simply, putting the new anger you felt in a box for the moment.

“I had to.” 

“You had to?” Despite the revelation, you started laughing, standing from the chair and moving to pick the book up. 

She blocked the movement, pulling the object closer to her and into her lap. “Yes, I had to.”

“Bullshit,” the box was deteriorating, your anger pressing forward until you could feel tingling in the tips of your fingers. “You’re a wolf and you never told me, not even after I was bit.”

The smell of guilt overcame the scent of anger. 

“What?” You asked, leaning your weight on one foot.

“I never expected you to phase,” she explained, running her fingers over the cover of the book before flipping it open, searching for a certain topic.

“What does that mean?” Your eyes narrowed, arms coming to cross over your chest. “Did dad know?”

Her silence was enough of an answer, and now you were really angry. 

“I-” she started, stopping when she looked up at you.

“He didn’t know,” you said simply. “So you lied to both of us.” 

Your scent must have filled the room because as soon as the words left you, she flinched. She didn’t say anything but she continued flipping through the pages, lifting the book to you when she stopped. You took it, impatience running through your veins. 

“What?” You asked, your eyes scanning over the section. It outlined Lycaon’s children and theorized about his descendents, humans who didn’t have to be bitten to phase. “Why is this important?”

“Sit down,” she commanded, sitting up and leaning forward. You obeyed through your anger, dropping the book on the coffee table and reclaiming your spot on the chair you vacated earlier. 

“What?”

“You weren’t bitten, and neither was I.”

“What?” You repeated, the anger subsiding for the oncoming confusion.

“You would never have phased if the attack didn’t happen. Something traumatic causes us to phase for the first time, the attack is what made you phase, you weren’t bitten,” she explained.

You remained silent, taking a deep breath. Your eyes flickered between the book and your mom, the dots starting to connect. “Which means what exactly?”

“You’re his descendent, so am I.”

“And you’ve never told me about this before? And you sent me to Arcadia Bay knowing this?” Your voice was raising, a more intense anger coiling inside you. 

“I didn’t expect it to matter. I didn’t think you were going to ever phase so everything was on a need-to-know basis.”

“And you didn’t fucking think I needed to know?! Even after I phased? Were the wolves that attacked us even werewolves?”

She shook her head, her eye contact never faltering. “No. They were just wolves. There were too many for me to stop all at once, by the time I finished getting the one away from you, another one had already killed your father.” 

“How did you hide it?” Your jaw clenched at the thought of your father.

“Suppressants. It was enough to mask my scent from you and you never tried to look past it.”

“Because I trusted you,” you threw back. “I trusted you because you’re my mom and you lied to me about everything. You lied to me about who you are, who I am. You lied to dad.”

“I didn’t have a choice.”

“You didn’t have a choice?”

“I didn’t have a choice!” She repeated, the words being yelled. 

“How?! Do you know how simple it would have been to say something when I phased? How about ‘Hey, I know this is all really sudden and you might not know what’s going on but I can help you’?! I locked myself away for months after dad died and you never said anything!” You stood from the chair, closing and pulling the book against you as you made for the stairs. 

“Stop,” she said your name, standing from the couch. 

“You lied to me! Four years and you never said a damn word! And what, I’m supposed to forget it and move on? How fucking elaborate does a lie have to be for you to maintain it for eighteen fucking years?”

When she didn’t answer you turned and climbed the stairs, going straight to your room and slamming the door. You stuffed the book into your backpack, along with a few changes of clothes and pulled your phone out, shooting a text to Victoria.

**[Me. 6:43PM]:** where are you

**[Victoria. 6:44PM]:** hotel

**[Victoria. 6:44PM]:** why

**[Me. 6:45PM]:** what hotel

**[Victoria. 6:45PM]:** greenwich

**[Victoria. 6:46PM]:** you okay?

**[Me. 6:46PM]:** what room

**[Victoria. 6:47PM]:** greenwich penthouse 

You pocketed the phone and picked the bag up, making your way back downstairs, making a beeline for the front door. You dropped the bag and slid into your jacket, slipping into your shoes. 

“Where are you going?” Your mom asked, coming up behind you. You zipped up your jacket, slinging the straps of the bag over your shoulders.

“Leaving,” you left it at that, opening the door and stepping outside. You just started walking. You’d eventually make your way to Victoria, but you needed some time to cool off and just think. 

  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know. I suck. A lot of things happened and I haven't really had much time to write and edit and upload. I've been working on this chapter a while because of the length and partly because I was not satisfied with the way that it turned out. This chapter marks a pivotal point in the story, hence why I spent so long editing and finalizing the version that I am posting. The future chapters will follow the same time constraint. The rest of the story, which I am estimating will be around 18 chapters in total, will each contain very important pieces of the story that I want to tell with this piece and because of this, I am not going to promise certain times that I will be uploading because I want to write the best material that I am capable of. 
> 
> As always, thanks for reading, comments and kudos are appreciated greatly.


	10. Returning to the Bay

Your mom was a wolf, and had been lying to you your entire life. And you were the descendent of Lycaon. And somehow it was you who had to lead the charge in saving Arcadia Bay. Somehow Greek mythology wasn’t just mythology anymore. And you had no idea who you were. You weren’t bitten. Your father never knew. What the fuck were you supposed to do now?

You found yourself at the cemetery again without any recollection of the journey. The sun was going down now but there was still enough light for you to find your way to your father’s grave. You would have found it without any light. The walk from the entrance to the stone was muscle memory. You didn’t say anything this time, you just stood there, making silent apologies to the headstone. You must have been there for an hour by the time you left, and it was starting to snow again. Your phone went off multiple times while you stood there, but you didn’t check any of the notifications until you were outside the gates of the cemetery. 

There were too many missed calls from your mom that you ignored, clearing the notifications bar of those. There were a few texts from Andrew of him checking in and a few from Victoria, each one displaying her worry more than the last.

**[Victoria. 7:12PM]:** why do you want to know where i am

**[Victoria. 7:21PM]:** did something happen

**[Victoria. 7:34PM]:** are you okay

**[Victoria. 7:46PM]:** do you want me to come get you

**[Me. 8:06PM]:** im on my way be there in a few

You didn’t bother waiting for a response, you were already heading in the direction of her hotel anyway. You weren’t really surprised she was staying in Greenwich, but the penthouse was a little up there in price as far as you knew. 

It didn’t take you long to get there and it only took you a few seconds to realize you were out of place in the lobby of the hotel. You still took your time though, making your way to the elevators at a good pace. The ride up was smooth, giving you a little time to settle yourself back into a normal human, or as normal as you could get. 

The door to the penthouse opened before you could even knock, revealing a pissed off looking Victoria. That might have just been her regular expression though. 

“Hello?” You were hesitant to speak once the scent of worry and slight anger got to you.

“Really? That’s it after some cryptic ass text messages?” 

“Wasn’t really the kind of thing I wanted to talk about over the phone, or at all, really.” 

Victoria’s eyes narrowed but she didn’t say anything, instead taking a step back and opening the door wider to let you in. The penthouse opened into a large living area, the kitchen directly on your right. “Really? Two floors for a hotel room?” You asked as you passed the staircase on the way to the couch. You dropped your backpack in front of you and sat down to the sound of the door closing to your left. Victoria made her way over and sat next to you, just staring and letting the silence take hold in the room.

“When are your parents getting back?” You asked quietly, feeling yourself slowly relax into the cushions.

Victoria shrugged. “I don’t know. They’re at some corporate Christmas party, they’ll probably be out all night,” she explained. “Why?”

“Can I stay here for the night?” 

“Yes,” she answered immediately, surprising you for multiple reasons. “Why do you need to?”

You leaned forward and reached for your bag, getting the book out and holding it out to Victoria. It wasn’t much of an explanation but it was the best you could manage at the moment. 

She took it, holding it in her lap and looking down at the cover, her eyes flickering up to you the next second. “What is this?”

“Pretty much the entire reason I’m here right now. And the reason the twins are in Arcadia Bay. And why me showing up there pretty much fucked the system that the universe apparently runs on,” you sounded tired after coming down from the rush of anger. 

“What do you mean?” 

“There’s a prophecy thing in there,” you paused and pointed to the book, “that tells the story of Lycaon, a guy that Zeus turned into the first werewolf and killed half his kids and turned the other half. He was the king of Arcadia, and it was cursed ever since he was turned because of what he did, which was try to feed Zeus pieces of a dead kid.

“So, anyway, apparently Arcadia Bay is on top of the kingdom, and the totem outside the dorms is a kind of beacon for the supernatural. It gets confusing, just try to keep up,” you turned towards her, folding one leg under you and laying your arm across the back of the couch. “When a descendant of Lycaon goes to Arcadia, the curse sets in, right? So now there’s a storm that’s threatening the city and I’m the key to why it’s happening and I have no fucking clue how to fix it.” 

Victoria’s expression shifted from curious to confused and her scent held slight fear. You’d read the book on your walk to the hotel, retaining some information that managed to make you more pissed off than anything. Pissed off because you were lied to for almost five years but also kind of your entire life and pissed off that you knew you were the reason Arcadia Bay was in danger. 

“So, turns out I’m a descendant, and I wasn’t actually bitten and turned, I was born this way and the attack where I thought I was bit was actually just this event that brought out my phase,” you hadn’t told her about the attack and you knew she’d have no idea what you were talking about but you didn’t really feel like keeping it in anymore. “My mom is also a werewolf and also a descendant. I was lied to pretty much my entire life and even more so since I first phased and I found that out tonight and got pissed off and I don’t really feel like being home or around my mom right now. That’s why I need a place to stay tonight.” Now that you thought about it, you could have gone back to the train car for the night and you didn’t really know why Victoria was the first person you reached out to. 

“So..” she started, trailing off when she couldn’t find the right words. You started laughing for some reason, which only confused her more. “What?”

You shook your head, taking a minute to gather yourself before reaching over to grab the book. You flipped it open to the section about Lycaon and handed it back. “I don’t know what the fuck is going on anymore.”

“Sounds like it,” it was meant to sound condescending but the comment lacked the usual bite in all of Victoria’s insults. You couldn’t argue with that. 

“You weren’t scared of me before when you already knew about what I am, why are you scared now?” You asked, nostrils flaring to catch the change of scent in the room. You could smell someone in the hall, could hear the footsteps approach the door and then retreat, probably a cleaner who caught sight of the ‘Do Not Disturb’ placard on the door handle. 

“I’m not scared  _ of  _ you,” Victoria clarified, lifting a hand to run it through her cropped, blonde hair. Your eyebrows lifted in expectation, eyes narrowing the slightest bit on her features, trying to read her thoughts before she could think them for herself. “I’m just. . scared in general.”

“Yeah, might be best to stay out of Arcadia for a while,” you suggested, a sigh breaking the sentence into fragments. 

“And how would I explain that to my parents?” 

“You’re Victoria Chase, since when have you ever had a problem convincing people of something?” 

“Since those ‘people’ are my parents. Believe it or not, they’re worse than I am.”

You found that hard to believe. Victoria must have read it on your face because she scoffed and stood, walking around the couch and into the kitchen. You heard the fridge open before you noticed you were putting in genuine effort to pay attention to Victoria’s breathing and scent. Sinking into the cushions, your head fell back, eyes closing until the blonde returned with two bottles of water, one of which bounced off your chest when she half-heartedly threw it at you.

“You’re a dick,” she mumbled. “I know I’m a terrible person,” she said your name. “Doesn’t mean I like it anymore than anyone else,” she made a point of avoiding your gaze when you lifted your head, her eyes focused on the bottle in her hand like it held all the secrets of the universe. 

“Then why don’t you change?” The change in scent was almost instant. Fear gave way to defensiveness masked as anger. You were getting better at reading her, werewolf abilities aside.

“Because I’m a Chase,” she answered simply. “And it’s expected of me.”

“And it’s expected of you,” you spoke in tandem with her, a sigh clinging to the end of your words. “Sucks when that happens.”

Victoria nodded in agreement, both of you falling into a calm silence for the moment. It would be a few minutes before words were needed again.

“So.. What are you gonna do now?” Victoria asked.

“I don’t know. Can’t go home, that’s for sure. If I go back and see her I’m not gonna be able to stop myself from getting angry and I really don’t wanna have to explain to our neighbors why a giant dog was tearing the house apart,” you smiled, it was small but at least it was there. “One of the old packs hangouts is still in use,” you explained. “Might crash there until I can get a flight back to the Bay. It’s gonna be a few days with the worst of the storm rolling in but I’ll manage.”

“Manage? Where the hell is the hangout?”

“Underground,” you answered, side-eyeing the blond and trying to refrain a laugh.

“Underground? What, do werewolves burrow?”

“Ha ha,” you made a show of being dramatic about it. “It’s an abandoned subway car. One of my old buddies still goes there from time to time so it isn’t like there’s nothing there anymore.”

Victoria seemed to think your answer over for a second and you didn’t miss the way she bit her lip even though you tried not to watch her. “You could stay here,” she offered almost hesitantly.

“Won’t your parents be back at some point?”

“I wish,” she laughed a little. “We get the same hotel room every time we come here and every time we do, I’m the only one who actually stays in it. They stay farther north to be closer to all the big Christmas parties they’ve been invited to.”

“Must be suffocating,” you commented, earning a slap from Victoria. “Sure.”

“Great, I’m gonna go to bed. Take any room but.. you know.. mine,” she finished, somewhat awkwardly. She walked away when you didn’t say anything, mumbling under her breath as she ascended the staircase into what you assumed to be the master bedroom. 

It was barely nine when you found an empty room. “There’s too many fucking doors in this fucking place,” you grumbled, shrugging off your coat before crawling onto the bed. Little happened that day, but you were exhausted just from the emotional truckload that hit you hours before.

* * *

The days passed and before you knew it, you had a ticket booked back to Arcadia Bay. Then before you knew it, Victoria booked a ticket on the same flight with an explanation that she didn’t feel like being alone any longer than she had to. You met up with Andrew once more before you left, asking more questions that he didn’t have answers to and spent Christmas with Victoria, pointedly avoiding doing anything Christmas-y. Despite the tenseness in the penthouse, for a reason you couldn’t figure out - or maybe just didn’t want to admit - you enjoyed it. You said it a couple times that if only Victoria could be that nice around other people, which earned you glares and slaps and feigned vapidness.

* * *

The airport was less busy than you thought it would be. Somehow, that was an underwhelming though. You and Victoria got to the airport a half hour early so she could get the best seat and you questioned more than once why she wasn’t flying first class like she was probably used to. 

“Stop asking questions.” was always her answer to that. 

“So do you like playing fetch?” 

“What?” You turned, looking at her incredulously. 

“Well, you’re basically just a big dog, right? Do you like dog things? Like playing fetch?” You could see the smile threatening to show from the way her lips quirked at the corners.

“Yeah, it’s what the pack does on full moons. We go out into the woods and play catch with each other.”

“You’re a buzzkill,” she commented at the way your features flatlined and didn’t show emotion at all. “Seriously, though?”

“No, not seriously!” Now you smiled. “I’ve never played fetch, Victoria.”

“Do you want to?” She whispered it, like it was some secret you didn’t want to admit.

You got out of answering when boarding for your flight was announced. You stood, pulling your backpack over your shoulders. You hated taking carry-ons but you didn’t want to chance the book getting lost with your luggage if you were having bad luck that day. “Let’s go, dog whisperer.”

Victoria had to jog to catch up to you at the gate, shoving your shoulder lightly as you handed over your ticket. You boarded with a laugh, noting the peaceful scent rolling off the blonde in waves. It was a nice change. 

You took the window seat of your row, leaning against the wall and rolling the window screen up to peer out as people filed in. Nobody sat next to you for the first five minutes and when someone finally did, it took you about five seconds to recognize the scent and who it was, prompting your eyes to roll. You looked away from the window to come face to face with a smiling Victoria, looking proud of herself as she assumed she had succeeded in annoying you. It was the least Victoria thing she could’ve done at that particular moment. 

“Can I help you?”

“Nope,” she said with a smile. 

You kept watching her for a moment, trying to make sense of everything in your head. Apparently it must’ve been a lot, because when you zoned back in, the plane was ready for take off. 

A few hours into the flight and mostly everyone had fallen asleep, including Victoria, who surprisingly snored. It surprised you for many reasons. It would’ve been cute except somehow, her head had ended up on your shoulder and she was snoring directly into your ear. Again, it would’ve been cute if it wasn’t for the unfortunate placement of her face. 

Flights were something you liked. You decided that a long time ago. As much as the snoring in your ear was mildly annoying you, you relished in the calmness. You doubted your time at Arcadia Bay would be anything but calm when you got back and so you basked in it now.

With Victoria sleeping against your shoulder and snoring into your ear, you watched the snow drift by the window of the plane and enjoyed the silence for however long it would last. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> DON'T FIGHT ME. I'VE BEEN GONE FOR GOOD REASON. THE WORLD WENT TO SHIT AND I HAD A REALLY LONG PANIC ATTACK.
> 
> I also have been planning a proposal, and am an essential worker, and have been dealing with returning to school, so I've had very little time to write. I want to tell you that I'll have the next chapter up in a timely manner, but you and I both know that isn't true, so just bear with me. I will finish this story in time, I promise. 
> 
> As always, leave a comment if you have any questions, comments, or criticism!


	11. Confessions

The peace and calm didn’t last long. The moment you stepped foot back in Arcadia Bay, the entire pack was waiting for you, worry in their scents. Worry gave way to confusion when they saw Victoria was with you, but that was something that you decided would have to wait to be explained. 

You and Victoria had talked on the plane and decided to catch a ride together back into town, but that was the extent of your conversation. You thought everything would go back to the way it was after that; Victoria would go back to only paying attention to you if it meant putting you down, except she stayed at your side in the parking lot of Blackwell. 

The four wolves just stared as you approached, the blonde close on your heels. Her nervousness was obvious the closer you got to them and you projected your scent on instinct even though she couldn’t benefit from it. Dylan was the first one to step forward, giving you a one-armed hug and a question in the form of a whisper about Victoria. Israel came up behind him but Reed and Morgan stayed back. You understood their hesitance. It wasn’t like any of their interactions with Victoria had been pleasant. 

“So, we need to talk,” you announced after Dylan left your side to return to Izzy’s. 

“Yeah, we do,” Morgan commented under her breath, quiet enough that the only one who didn’t hear it was the only human with the group.

“I’ll meet you guys at the house?” You asked, directing the question to Dylan and Israel. Defiance was rolling off Morgan and it flared the alpha instinct inside you to make her submit but you fought it off, keeping your attention focused in on the calmest two of the four.

Dylan gave you a nod and began pushing Reed and Morgan towards his car, whispering words that you didn’t bother to tune into. Israel lagged behind for a half-second, giving you a thumbs up and pointing to Victoria when she turned away for a moment. He laughed as he followed the rest of the pack.

“So,” you started, turning to face Victoria.

“So?”

“What are you doing?”

“What do you mean?”

“Why are you staying with me?”

Victoria looked taken aback from the question, her defenses rising as she misinterpreted your words. 

“Not like that,” you clarified. “I meant, why are you staying with me now that you know who I am and who the twins are? You really think they’re not gonna question why you’re suddenly hanging around the resident alpha of Arcadia Bay?”

The strength of her scent calmed, the look of ice she wore melting bit by bit. “I don’t care if they question it.”

“I do,” you answered with force. “I’m not looking to get anyone hurt if I don’t have to. Especially a human that can’t survive half the things wolves can.”

She didn’t answer for a moment, opting to look around the parking lot just to avoid your gaze. “Victoria,” you said, reaching to wrap your fingers around her wrist, tugging on it lightly to get her to turn back to you.

“Did you ever think that knowing what you and they are now makes me not want to be around them?”

A smile graced your lips. You couldn’t help it. “What?” Victoria asked, yanking her wrist free from your grip.

“You’re scared of them, humans with a few fighting skills, but not of me, a werewolf who could kill you if I lose my temper? Yeah, that makes perfect sense.”

“You wouldn’t hurt me.”

_ No. No, I wouldn’t,  _ you thought. “Not the point, Victoria.”

“Look, I’m not scared of you because you’re not hiding anything. You’re a werewolf, not like you’re trying to hide it and lure me into the woods on a full moon so you can eat me. The twins are weird and creepy and now that I know who they are, I’m scared because now it all makes sense. I know you would never hurt m-” she paused, “-a human.” She corrected herself after a breath. “But I can’t say that they wouldn’t. So can I just stay with you for right now?”

“Are you sure? Because I’m gonna go have a pack meeting and you were nervous just walking up to them, so do you really want to be in a house with them?”

“They wouldn’t hurt me either,” she said confidently, playing on your expressions every time she said something akin to that. 

“Okay. Let’s go though. I wanna get this conversation over with,” with that, you started for your car, throwing your backpack with the book in it in the back seat. Victoria materialized on the other side of the car, already sliding into the passenger seat before you even got behind the wheel.

_ Fuck, this is weird, _ you thought as you pulled your door shut and turned the ignition.

* * *

Morgan’s face soured the second you and Victoria got through the front door. Her heart rate sped and you glared at her, blinking quickly when your eyes turned blue as a reaction to her defiance. She deflated after that and you blinked away the wolf instinct. 

You pulled the book out of your bag and dropped it on the coffee table, dropping the bag by the couch before pulling Victoria with you towards the couch, pulling her down to sit next to you. “So, I learned a couple things.”

Dylan and Israel were curled up on the loveseat, Morgan and Reed in opposite recliners. 

“Which means, I figured out why the twins are in Arcadia, and why they’ve been making their way up the coast,” you sat forward, flipping the book open and turning the pages until you got to the passage about Lycaon. “The totem is important, it draws the supernatural in, i.e, us and the twins. They’re not really hunters by choice. Hunters have their own bloodline,” you recited another portion of the book, repeating Reed from when he first introduced you to the King of Arcadia. “The killing and shit only becomes a driving factor after a traumatic event that triggers the transformation, like me.” Victoria inched closer to your side as your level of discomfort rose. “This guy, Lycaon, first werewolf or whatever, he has descendants. I’m one of them. The bite that I thought turned me didn’t. It was just the traumatic event that made me phase for the first time. And we have a bigger problem. The storm will happen again because  _ I’m  _ here. Reed was right about finding that legend, but it isn’t just any wolf that has to be here, it has to be from Lycaon’s bloodline.” 

“Okay, so how do we fix that? Cause, not to worry anyone or anything, but you leaving isn’t gonna cut it,” Dylan spoke up. 

“What do you mean?” Victoria asked, making you look over to her in slight surprise. 

“I mean, weird shit has been going on even after you left the city.”

“Like?” You prompted.

“Like birds flying into windows by the hundreds and killing themselves. Like a fucking eclipse in December. Do you have any explanation of that?”

“Can I see the book?” Reed asked, standing from his chair to kneel by the coffee table. He flipped through a couple pages, leaving the rest of the pack and Victoria in silence as he read. “So,” he started after a couple minutes, “I can explain it, nobody’s gonna like it though.”

“Reed,” you said, waiting until he looked at you before waving your hand to tell him to hurry up.

“Okay, okay. First, where did you get this book because it’s really interesting? Second, they’re events leading to the storm. Zeus gave the actual kingdom the same warnings.”

All of you let out a breath. You felt Victoria move closer again, smelled the change in the room as everyone’s scent was doused in anxiety. You projected, but you doubted it helped much since your own scent was probably laced with unease. 

“How much longer?”

“Hm?” Reed looked at you again.

“How much longer until the storm?”

“Oh, uh,” he started, leaning over the book again. “Couple days. The warnings lasted a week is what it says. Dyl, how many days ago was all that stuff?”

“Last two. It freaked us out but we didn’t tell you because we didn’t want you to just drop being with your mom.” 

You scoffed at the comment, shaking your head without an explanation. “Okay, so we have five more days to figure out how to stop it. Reed, take the book, keep reading and see if there’s anything else useful in there. I’m gonna get some air,” you stood, stepping around Victoria’s legs to head for the back door. As far as you knew, the twins never left during the break but you didn’t care to worry about an attack at that moment.

The sliding door opened behind you as you stood on the back patio, a thin layer of snow crunching under your shoes. The scent calmed you, you wished it didn’t. 

“You okay?” Victoria asked as she stopped at your side, curling her arms around herself in an effort to keep the cold away. You pitied her a little. Wolves could deal with cold weather easier than humans. 

“Perfectly fine.” You answered. “Except even if Reed doesn’t find a way to stop the storm in that book, I already have a pretty good idea of what’ll need to happen.”

“And what’s that?” Victoria side-stepped closer, the heat radiating off your skin drawing her in.

“Me,” you said simply. “Dying, probably. The storm was meant to kill any of Lycaon’s remaining sons and settlers of the kingdom as punishment. I’m a descendent in Arcadia Bay, and I’m not dead.”

Victoria didn’t say anything but you felt movement before her hand slid into yours, her fingers lacing themselves between yours. You squeezed lightly, letting the silence drag on.

_ What the hell am I doing?  _ You questioned yourself. Possibly having to die sometime in the next five days really should make you not want to get involved with anyone and yet you were holding Victoria’s hand and her head was laying against your shoulder like it was on the plane. Another moment of peace that would no doubt end too soon. 

And it did. The sliding door opened again and Dylan stepped outside, coming up on your other side. “Hey.”

“Hey,” you answered, ignoring the questioning look he gave you about Victoria, who hadn’t moved even when Dylan came out.

“Are you thinking the same thing I’m thinking?”

“Depends on what you’re thinking.”

“That this won’t end well.”

You looked over at him and felt Victoria squeeze your hand. Your gaze fell to the ground before you looked straight again. “I don’t know, Dyl.”

“Yeah, you do. What aren’t you telling us? How do you even know you’re a descendent? What, you went home and found someone who knew everything about werewolf legends?”

“Dylan.”

“No,” he said your name, making you look at him again. “You can’t keep secrets right now. I don’t want to think this isn’t gonna end well because the only person it won’t end well for is you if you’re a descendent. How do you know this is all tied to you being here?”

Dylan walked back inside after a few minutes of silence. You didn’t want to answer him, you didn’t want to relive the argument or the roaming around New York after or meeting up with Victoria.

“Should’ve known you were a lesbian,” you heard Victoria say.

“What the fuck are you talking about? What do you mean you should've known I was a lesbian?”

“What?” She lifted her head and smiled at you. “Really? A girl alpha? What, are you trying to hide it? Dressed like that?”

“What’s wrong with the way I dress?” You looked down at yourself. You were wearing jeans and a hoodie. 

“Nothing. It’s just gay.”

Victoria started laughing and you just kept trying to make sense of how jeans and a hoodie made you look gay. She wasn’t wrong, per say, but still.

“And you think you look straight wearing that?” You asked, mirroring her smile. Victoria’s died almost immediately, a redness blooming in her cheeks that the cold air didn’t cause. 

“You’re an ass,” she commented. 

“Yeah, I’ve heard that before,” you shrugged. “Let’s go.” You tugged on her hand, directing her to the back door and leading her inside. She kept a grip on your hand until you both sat down again, at which point she pulled her hand back into her lap.

“Guys,” you began, your gaze traveling to Dylan for a moment. “My mom is a descendent. She told me a couple days ago about being in the bloodline. A kid in my old pack gave me the book, apparently he knew about it too before I did. She hid it from me until I started asking questions but she told me when I got angry about it. That’s how I know. That’s how I got the book. Ten bucks the twins don’t even know why they came to Arcadia other than they had a feeling. The Diaz pack isn’t drawn here because I’m here, not because you guys are. The totem draws in wolves until a descendent shows up, then it just keeps them here until the storm is done.”

Dylan watched you with careful eyes, giving a nod after a few seconds. You noticed that Morgan’s angry demeanor was gone now, replaced by worry. Your scent was projected again but this time it did help with calming the pack. Reed sat on the recliner he was in earlier with the book in his lap, his focus temporarily diverted because of your explanation. 

“We’ll figure it out,” Israel said first, earning sounds of agreement from the other three members. Victoria reached for your hand again, smiling comfortingly when you looked over at her before looking back to your pack. 

“The Diaz family will help if we need them to,” Dylan said. “I’m sure your old pack in New York would make the trip out if you asked them to. We can get back-up. We don’t have to do this alone.”

“I won’t ask them to put themselves in a deadly situation for me, I don’t even want you guys to do it.”

“Good thing about being an alpha, you don’t have to ask, we’re in,” Morgan said, surprising you with the calmness of her voice. 

“Yeah. I’m kind of regretting the whole alpha thing, just so you know,” that got a laugh out of everyone, even if they were only half-hearted. “I’m gonna head back to campus. We’ll meet up again tomorrow and if Reed finds anything useful, that’s when we’ll make a plan if there’s one that can be made.” Everyone nodded in agreement and you waited a minute before standing, pulling Victoria up with you and heading for the front door. You turned back after opening the door, letting Victoria out first and waiting until she was out of earshot. “If anyone has anything to say, do me a favor and don’t. I know, okay? Believe me, I know.”

“Okay, okay. Just glad to hear that you’re aware of it too,” Reed said, still facing the pages of the book. 

“Reed, I’m gonna kick your ass someday.”

* * *

Victoria was quiet the entire way back to Blackwell and you both sat in the car for a few minutes after you parked. 

“What am I supposed to do if the twins come find me?” She finally asked. 

“Act like everything is fine,” you answered, looking over at her. “You had a good break, spent a couple days with friends. They don’t know where I’m from, tell them you were in New York. They don’t have to know that you know anything. If they keep asking questions, lie. Lie good.”

“Okay,” she said through a sigh. “I don’t want to go back to ignoring you.”

“I don’t want you to either,” you leaned back against the headrest, one hand still on the steering wheel. 

“Great, so what do we do?”

“I don’t know, Victoria. Believe it or not, I kinda have no fucking clue what’s happening anymore.” You heard her laugh. “In class, act like nothing’s changed. You still hate me and my friends, you still hate Max and Kate and even Chloe when you see her with us. Whenever the twins can see, act like nothing has changed.”

Victoria nodded, agreeing the terms before getting out of the car. You followed suit, pausing for a minute to check your phone. More missed calls from your mom, more voicemails that still hadn’t been listened to. The blonde came up to your side, taking your hand again, shrugging when met with your questioning look.

“What? The twins aren’t here right now and the majority of students don’t get back until tomorrow.”

“Got something you want to tell me?” You asked, tightening your grip. 

“Not yet,” she answered, smiling at you before leading you out of the parking lot by your connected hands.

“When?” 

“I don’t know. Gimme a couple days,” she said without turning to look at you. 

“Might not have that long, sweetheart,” that earned you a smack on the arm, a laugh bubbling in your chest at Victoria’s reaction as she pulled you across the front lawn of Blackwell. 

“Don’t joke about it. Not until we figure something out.”

You stopped walking, anchoring Victoria in place with your grip on her hand, turning her until she was facing you. “We?”

“Yeah. We. I’m in this now whether I want to be or not, might as well do whatever I can to help,” with that, Victoria started pulling you again. You walked with her slowly, breathing in the cold air as long as you could. Winter has always been your favorite season. You watched the flurries of snowflakes fall, watched the snow crunch under the weight of your steps, and you watched as the flakes landed in Victoria’s hair, watched them melt from her body heat. You really shouldn’t be doing this. There was too much you’d have to do in the next five days, if you lasted that long, but you couldn’t bring yourself to pull your hand away right then. 

So you kept watching. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know, uploads two Friday's in a row. Don't get used to it. I'm gonna try and keep writing as much as I can, but I'm not promising anything. 
> 
> We're getting to the big conflict here in a couple chapters. We've got some falling in love, forgiving, trusting, and battles coming up. 
> 
> Another note, this story will cap off at 18 chapters. I have branching stories that I would like to do about the Reader/Victoria's future after the events of Sundown but also other stories based around the pack members and especially Israel and Dylan's relationship because as I write more of it, I have more love for it. I also want to do a story revolving around the Reader's mother/father and their story of one being a werewolf and having to hide it from everyone. I have a lot planned and I hope I actually get around to being able to do it all. So although Sundown will cap off at 18 chapters, I am nowhere near done with this storyline.
> 
> As always, questions, comments, and concerns are always welcome!


	12. Alliances

You were finally playing music again after weeks of going without it. Your dorm room was the only solitude you had now that the world was ending because of your existence. Playing music was easier than dealing with your pending probable death. The notes emanating from the keyboard you had set up kept you just calm enough that you didn’t lose your shit every time the clouds darkened. You paid more attention to the weather now, checking the forecast online at least once an hour even though it didn’t help and no big storms were predicted to hit the town over the next five days. 

It was the day after you got back into town and you spent it in your dorm, disconnected with the world. You even ignored messages from the pack. You just needed time. Surprisingly, you found yourself wanting to be around Victoria. It was a mix of teenage hormones and wolf hormones. You wanted to be around her to make her laugh again and you wanted to be around her to make sure she was safe. You knew the twins got back that morning, their scent hit you the moment they stepped on campus. It was stronger than it was before. 

Considering that everyone was awake at nine in the morning because most of them were just getting back to campus, you didn’t bother to use headphones for the keyboard. You didn’t even think about the noise until you heard a knock at the door. The person knocking was immediately recognized the moment your nostrils flared, along with the two people with them. You took extra time getting to the door, noting the steadily increasing scent of anger and a little fear. 

“What?” You asked Victoria when you opened the door, feigning anger back at her since the twins lingered behind her with smug expressions. 

“Do you think you could quiet down? You know, take it into consideration that there are people on this floor that don’t want to hear you play shitty music?” Victoria shot back, but the venom in her words was fear in actuality. The twins mistook her uncomfortable demeanor, probably assuming that it was because of you instead of them. Again, your scent flared in an attempt to calm the blonde and again, she couldn’t benefit from it. But you noticed Morgan on the other side of the hall, giving you a nod when your eyes leveled with hers. If it was needed, she had your back. 

“Didn’t peg you as a person who knew what good music was, Victoria.” 

The blonde’s eyes narrowed as a smirk spread across your lips. You’d probably get smacked for the comment later when you were alone with her.

“Can you just keep it down?” She asked, already turning away from you. The twins hung back for a beat, sneering at you. No wonder their scents were stronger, they were getting more aggressive. 

You pushed the door shut after waving Morgan off, retreating back into the room and making for the desk when your phone dinged. 

**[Victoria. 9:23AM]:** sorry for being rude. just remember it was your idea to keep up appearances 

**[Me. 9:24AM]:** dont worry about it

**[Me. 9:24AM]:** next time do a better job, u lacked ur usual venom 

**[Victoria. 9:25AM]:** kinda hard to be mean to you now 

**[Me. 9:25AM]:** why

When you didn’t get an immediate response, you dropped the phone back on your desk and went to your closet. You figured you should at least change out of your pajamas before you went back to Dylan’s. The last text you got from the pack was Reed telling everyone he needed to talk about something he found in the book. You weren’t really eager to hear any of it. Jeans and a hoodie again, even though you were still wondering how that combination of clothing made you stand out as being gay. You slipped into your shoes, pulling a jacket over the hoodie before going back for your phone and keys. 

**[Me. 9:29AM]:** u still coming with me to dylans?

**[Victoria. 9:30AM]:** yeah gimme a few to get away from the twins tho

**[Me. 9:30AM]:** im gonna go grab breakfast for everyone anyway so ill be back in like 15 mins. meet me in the parking lot

You didn’t wait for the response. You pocketed the device and left your room, locking it on the way out. The trip to the parking lot was short and it was snowing again. At least you could phase more in the winter. You blended in spectacularly with the snow, except for the bright blue eyes. 

You waited for the car to warm up a bit before you drove away from Blackwell. There was only one McDonald’s in Arcadia Bay and the line was always long at any time of the day, so you were prepared to wait a little. Which you were right to do since the line went halfway around the building when you got there. You occupied yourself with a game on your phone, actively ignoring the messages from Dylan and Reed asking where you and Morgan were. Morgan eventually responded and despite your rule to only phase when necessary, said she was on her way and to leave the back door unlocked. You didn’t have it in you to be mad about it. It wasn’t like a bunch of people were roaming the woods and you knew the twins were with Victoria and not out hunting. 

You had already put the order in and was waiting to get all the food when your phone dinged again. The wait for the food would be the longest since you were getting stuff for the whole group.

**[Victoria. 9:54AM]:** where are you

**[Me. 9:54AM]:** running late, long line. dont wait outside i dont want you to lose any fingers from the cold

**[Victoria. 9:55AM]:** ha ha

You smiled at the interaction and stopped wishing that Victoria didn’t make you feel warm. Since you were embracing things now, why the hell not embrace whatever it was that you had with Victoria?

Ten minutes later you were back at Blackwell, keeping the Jeep idling as you got out. The twins were already walking towards you from one side, Morgan walking towards you from the other, so apparently she wasn’t on her way to Dylan’s just yet. A hand was extended, stopping Morgan from coming any closer when the twins came up to you. Morgan was about two cars down, stationary. You could feel her unease as Connor approached you. Anna was a few feet behind him but advancing fast. You didn’t see the knife Connor had until he lifted it and pressed it to your stomach, shoving you with all his strength until your back hit the car and the knife sheathed itself in your muscle. Anna came up behind him as your hands rose to him, lifting a needle and pressing it into your neck. You heard yourself wince, heard Morgan move from her spot until Connor spoke up, a threat slipping between his teeth. 

Anna eventually pulled the needle out, tucking it back into a pocket, but Connor kept his hand on the grip of the blade, keeping it lodged inside you even as your skin and muscle tried to heal around it. Your vision started to blur around the edges and you felt something drip from your nose. It didn’t take a genius to see that it was black instead of red. 

_ Wolfsbane,  _ you thought. Your head started to buzz. You smelled Victoria before you saw her run over, stopping a few feet away from you and the twins. Her eyes flickered down to where Connor’s hand was, noting the knife, back up to your eyes. 

“Silver,” you gritted out between clenched teeth, looking back at Connor.

“Why would we use anything else?” He asked, smiling before pressing harder. 

Your defenses wanted to kick in but they were dulled by the silver and the wolfsbane, leaving you getting weaker as the seconds ticked by.

“Last warning,” Anna said your name. “Next time we won’t stop with just hurting you.”

Connor abruptly pulled the knife out, wiping the blade on the sleeve of your jacket to clean it of blood. One of your hands immediately went to the wound. You knew it wouldn’t heal as quickly since it was silver and you were losing the ability to stand on your own. Morgan and Victoria rushed over when the twins retreated. Apparently the blonde didn’t care about appearances anymore. 

“Hey, look at me,” Victoria’s hands came up to your face, cradling it and tipping it back so she could look into your eyes. You knew they were glowing a bright blue. Morgan slipped around you and Victoria and opened the back door, coming back to help Victoria maneuver you into the seat. You all but fell into the seat, breathing heavily as you sank down. Victoria slid in beside you, her hand covering the one you had pressed to the stab wound. Black blood coated her palm and she lifted it to stare for a beat and the scent of fear and worry hit you like a train. Morgan piled into the front, already pulling out of the parking lot and heading to Dylan’s house, you assumed. 

Your head fell to the side, resting against Victoria’s chest. She was sideways in the seat, trying to keep your head up and pressure on the bleeding. The stab wound wouldn’t have been so bad without the wolfsbane running through your blood. It wasn’t a high enough dose to kill you, but it was enough to take you off your feet for a little while. Your vision faded at the edges, a black ring closing in until your eyes closed and you lost consciousness. 

You woke up a few seconds later, groaning when your eyes opened. It felt like your skin was burning and you felt your canines grow. Wolfsbane made werewolves weaker but it made them shift too, depending on the amount ingested.  _ What if it’s directly pumped into your fucking bloodstream though?  _ You thought. 

Victoria had your hand in a vice grip when your claws formed and you tried to pull away. She squeezed tighter, moving her fingers so your nails didn’t hurt her. Your heartbeat was getting quicker and Morgan flinched when you groaned. 

“Morgan, what the fuck is happening right now?” Victoria asked in a panic.

“It was wolfsbane. It makes us phase. I don’t know, I’ve never seen it actually make someone phase. It has to be a lot to trigger a phase.”

You groaned again, drawing Victoria’s attention back to you. 

“Morgan, you have to stop. I don’t think she’s gonna make it to the house.”

Morgan did pull over, but both of them froze when instead of groan sounding, a growl did. 

“Victoria, get out. Now,” Morgan ordered, getting out of the car and opening the back door. When Victoria didn’t move fast enough for her, Morgan curled her hands under Victoria’s arms and lifted her out of the car and pushed her back. “Stay back, okay? I don’t exactly know how this shit goes down.” She pulled her phone out of her pocket and threw it to Victoria. “Text Dylan, tell him to get everyone in the woods. I’m gonna need help.”

You could feel your control slipping as Morgan reached to pull you out of the car next. The stab wound was still bleeding, black blood dripped into the snow when you were out of the backseat. Morgan all but threw you towards the treeline and you mustered enough strength to get further in, concealing yourself from anyone on the road. Morgan followed you, hesitant until she smelled the other wolves nearing. 

You phased in the next minute. A scream was torn from your throat as you collapsed onto the ground, your skin steaming in the cold air a split second before the form of a wolf replaced the form of a human and then your vision was bathed in red. You were angry, and you didn’t have control, and you felt steam rise from the cut and the blood freeze in your fur. Victoria was watching from behind Morgan, fear wracking her scent. Maybe it was Morgan’s. You couldn’t really tell. You could barely stand even in wolf form. You stumbled around, whining whenever your movement exacerbated the pain from the cut. Morgan phased a few seconds later, standing her ground in front of Victoria, her stance and scent protective. The other three wolves closed in around you when they arrived, huffing as they calmed. 

Eventually you collapsed onto your side, laying in the snow and whimpering. The anger was still there, but you didn’t have the strength to follow its path. 

_ What happened? What’s wrong with her? Why is Victoria here? Why is she bleeding? Morgan?  _ The telepathic link connecting the wolves was loud with thoughts. You ignored them for the most part. The wolves closed in around you, Dylan sniffed at the cut and Morgan came over to nuzzle your front leg, a whine sounding in her throat. 

And then you blacked out.

When you woke up, you were you again. Laying in the bed of Dylan’s guest bedroom with the blankets pulled up to your waist. You were clothed, so at least someone had the decency to do that for you. There was a bandage taped to your stomach and you knew the wound hadn’t healed over yet because you could still feel it. The effect of the wolfsbane was wearing off, your vision wasn’t as cloudy and you could breathe normally again.

It took you a minute to realize you weren’t alone. You twisted your neck to the other side of the bed, noting the blonde with the blankets pulled up her chin, her head on your shoulder and her leg thrown over one of yours. You lifted your arm slowly, making Victoria move in her sleep as her head was jostled from your movement. You eventually got your arm around her, your neck twisting to the other side to see the clock on the bedside table. It was the middle of the night.  _ Great, three days left.  _

You looked at the ceiling again, trying to control your breathing again from the anxiety that bubbled in your chest. Victoria curled against you even more, one of her arms sliding over your stomach to grip the opposite side of your body. 

“Warm,” she mumbled in her sleep, making the edges of your lips twitch into a smile. You reined in your senses, listening for a sign that anyone else was awake. Someone was, and they were walking down the hall towards you. A second later, Dylan’s head popped through a crack in the door. 

“Hey, alpha. How’re you feeling?” 

Your response was lifting your hand and holding it horizontally, tipping it back and forth. 

“Yeah, figured. Took us a while to get you home. Had to wait until you phased back to stuff you back in the car. Kinda hard since no one wanted to handle you naked but Victoria got a kick out of it,” Dylan said with a grin. “Kidding, kidding. But she did see you naked so prepare for a conversation about that.”

“Thanks for the warning. Seems like she liked what she saw,” you joked back. 

“Game on, sister.” He grinned before backing out of the room again. 

Victoria stirred once more, tightening her grip on your stomach. You held back a groan, instead clearing your throat softly. 

Sleep came to you again eventually, after what seemed like hours of trying to stay still so you didn’t wake up Victoria and hours of trying to weasel your way into a more comfortable position. You eventually stopped trying to move and just laid there, trying to focus on anything but the sleeping blonde next to you. Somehow your relationship with Victoria Chase went from zero to sixty in a matter of days. Somehow, that wasn’t the weirdest thing that’s happened in those days. 

You woke up a few hours later with the sun, Victoria still very much wrapped around you. The groggy feeling was gone by then and the wound had healed over, you reached down and gently pulled the bandage off. The scar would take a couple more hours to go away, it was a bright pink and still tender. 

You did your best to slide off the bed without waking Victoria up. Once you completed that, you stood and just watched her sleep for a second. She rolled over more into the spot you were previously in and pulled your pillow into her chest. You let yourself smile at the sight before stepping away. You were in a pair of shorts that definitely weren’t yours. Your guess was they were Reed’s since they fit pretty nice. The shirt was Dylan’s, that you could tell just from his lingering scent on the fabric. 

You moved in front of a full length mirror beside the door, pulling the shirt up high enough so you could get a good look at the scar that had formed. You were still staring at it when you heard rustling from behind you.

“Hey,” Victoria grumbled, her voice laced with sleep still. You turned for a moment, seeing that she was staring at you through the mirror. You turned back, your gaze falling back to the scar. You hated the way it looked. You hated what caused it. You hated who caused it. You sighed, pulling the shirt back down and moving to sit on the end of the bed. You felt movement and then Victoria was behind you, her arms sliding around your middle, her chin resting on your shoulder. 

“I’m sorry.”

“For what?” You asked, leaning back into her, letting your head rest on her shoulder. 

“I don’t know,” she whispered. “Not getting there before he stabbed you, I guess.” 

You laughed quietly, lifting a hand to rest on one of hers. “You don’t have to apologize for that. It was bound to happen. They attacked one of us before as a warning, we knew another one was coming. They did it at the right time though. They knew I wouldn’t do anything in the parking lot. Gotta give them that, at least.”

“Still,” she nuzzled into the shirt, squeezing you once before letting go to get up. “Anyone tell you what happened after you passed out yesterday?”

“Yeah, Dylan came in last night when I woke up. He gave me the rundown,” you paused, turning to face Victoria where she was bent over and rummaging through her bag. “How come you’re not scared of me?”

She didn’t answer until she stood, turning to face you with her phone in hand. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, you saw me phase. You saw Morgan phase. You saw the rest of them as wolves. I know phasing isn’t a pretty sight. It isn’t exactly something I would want to witness if I didn’t have to.”

“Doesn’t mean it’s scary,” she said with a smile, sitting back down beside you. Then the smile was gone. “What was scary was seeing you with a knife in your stomach and Connor on the other end. What was scary was seeing Morgan stand there because it wasn’t like she could phase and do anything to stop it. What was scary was riding in the backseat with you, wondering if you were dying because I didn’t know what was going on.”

You stayed silent for a moment. “How come you weren’t like this before?”

“Like what?”

“Smiling and… I don’t know.”

“Nice?” Victoria finished for you. “Because I’m a Chase and my entire life I’ve been taught that the only way to the top is to step on people.”

“So how come you’re not stepping on me?”

“Because,” she paused, setting her phone aside. “Because I don’t want anything from you. Not anything that’s worth stepping on you for, anyway.”

You nodded, pursing your lips and diverting your gaze. “Good to know, I think.” 

“Hey,” Victoria whispered, drawing your attention back to her. 

“Hm?” And all the sudden she was kissing you. All the sudden your senses died and the only thing you could think of was Victoria. Victoria was  _ kissing  _ you. You froze. For a split second you couldn’t do anything but sit there and be kissed, but then you weren’t frozen and you were moving your lips too. 

It ended too soon. That was the first thing you thought. 

“That’s why I’m not stepping on you.”

“Can you just, like, clarify it for me a little more. I don’t think I fully understand just yet,” you answered. Victoria smiled before her hands came up and cradled your face, drawing you back into another kiss, this one deeper than the last. Only to be broken when the door was pushed open. 

“Whoa, whoa, uh,” Reed said quickly, lifting a hand to cover his eyes as you and Victoria pulled away from each other. “Sorry, uh… sorry, guys.” He quickly backed out of the room, slamming the door behind him. You laughed just to get rid of the awkward feeling in the room. 

“Sorry for mauling your face,” Victoria said eventually with a smile. 

“No apology necessary.” You stood, moving away from the bed to get your own phone. More missed calls from your mom. More messages from your mom that went unanswered. You threw the device on the bed and sighed, moving back over to Victoria before bending down to kiss her forehead. You both smiled at each other for a few seconds afterward before you pulled her to her feet and out of the room. The rest of the pack was waiting in the kitchen, all of them seated at the dining table, and all of them trying to hide knowing smiles except Reed, who just looked more scared than anything. 

“Relax, Reed. You’re not in trouble,” you commented as you sat down, noting the book that was in front of him. “What did you find?” 

“Nothing good,” he started. “There is a way to stop the storm, but someone has to die, kind of.”

“Kind of?”

“Yeah, the descendent who triggered the whole thing has to die, but there’s also a different ritual that could work.”

“Great,” you said, leaning back in the chair. Victoria reached over to take your hand. “So I die. Maybe we should just go back to the twins now and let them finish what they started yesterday.”

Nobody spoke for a few seconds. Victoria only reacted by squeezing your hand tighter. You wanted to laugh at the irony of it all. Of course you would have to die after finding someone who liked you despite the monster you were. 

“There’s another way,” Reed said eventually. You couldn’t even muster the energy to respond, so Victoria did it for you.

“What way?”

“Well, she would still die,” he answered, nodding to you. “But she can be brought back, through a soul connection,” he explained.

“What the fuck is a soul connection?”

“It’s kinda self-explanatory. What would happen is someone would give their soul for yours after you died so you could come back. A soul for a soul, essentially.”

“And what, I’m just supposed to pick someone to die for me? How the fuck am I supposed to do that?”

“You don’t choose it. It’s just something that exists and it can only be between two wolves.”

“I called your mom,” Dylan said. 

“You did what?” Your anger flared, eyes moving over to narrow at Dylan. 

“You’re the only two known descendents that we know of. The soul connection can only be between descendents.”

“That isn’t what Reed said.”

“Yeah, because he knew you’d get pissed off. So I called her. Maybe you should answer your phone every once in a while.”

“Dylan,” you warned, a growl on the tip of your tongue. Victoria squeezed tighter.

“What? You gonna make me bow down too?”

You stood, the chair scraping on the tile as it fell backwards. In the next second you had Dylan pinned against the wall by his shirt, your eyes burning a bright blue. Israel stood, ready to defend until you sat him back down with a look. “Remember that I didn’t want to be your alpha. You chose to follow me.” Victoria was next to you suddenly, her palm pressed against your stomach, urging you back and to let go of Dylan. You did after another beat but you stayed standing, moving to lean against the counter instead. “I won’t let her give her life for mine. If she dies, I don’t have anyone else. What the fuck made you call her?”

Dylan took a minute to gather himself, sitting back down and running a hand through his hair. “To see if there was anyone else,” he answered. “There isn’t, by the way. And it isn’t your choice, it’s hers. This curse doesn’t end until you die because you’re the alpha here, but you don’t have to stay dead.”

“Great. I’m so happy you called her, Dylan. Thank you.” You walked away before your anger got the best of you, heading straight for the back door. You left the house quickly, breathing the wintery air in deeply. Victoria followed you but you doubted she would stay out there long. She wasn’t wearing a jacket and it was still snowing. 

“Hey, you need to calm down,” she commented, moving to stand next to you with her arms wrapped around herself. 

“Thanks for the advice.”

“I’m serious. I don’t need to be a wolf to notice it either. You getting pissed off isn’t helping anyone. He did what he thought needed to be done and knew you weren’t going to-” she trailed off. “What are you looking at?”

You stopped listening until her question. Your eyes were focused on the treeline you could see from the back patio. There was movement in the snow. Your senses zeroed in, the scent of the twins coming back to you in seconds. Instinctively, you reached for Victoria and pulled her behind you, shielding her. 

The twins came out of the brush a couple seconds later, Connor with a quiver and bow strung over his shoulders and Anna with a crossbow. “You wanna tell us what the hell is going on?” Connor asked as he approached. 

Your eyes flared blue again, your defenses up this time. “What are you talking about?”

“Look up.”

You did, so did Victoria. You heard her gasp before you saw it. It was morning but the full moon was still out. Moons, actually. It looked like a glitch, but there were two full moons. “What the fuck?” The rest of the pack filtered outside, their attention being drawn to the sky as you and the twins kept your eyes pointed up. 

“Okay, that’s not a good sign,” Reed said. 

“No shit, Reed. Thanks for the commentary.”

“What are they doing here?” Morgan asked, her gaze completely focused on the twins. 

“We’re here to find out what’s going on,” Anna answered.

“Short story is we’re all gonna die unless I die first,” you answered, only to be interrupted by Reed. 

“Actually, we need them, too. Part of the ritual is that a hunter has to actually do the killing.”

“What ritual? What’s going on?” Connor asked. 

“Go inside, he’ll explain it,” you said, already tired of the day and it wasn’t even noon. They all went back inside, even if it was an uneasy truce. Victoria stayed outside with you, this time she was tucked under your arm against your side, trying to take all the warmth you were putting off. “God, this is a fucking mess.” 

“You’re telling me. Last week my biggest worry was whether or not I’d be able to get a new Gucci bag fast enough, now my biggest worry is my girlfriend dying to save a shithole town.”

“Girlfriend?”

“I mean…” she paused, nervousness creeping into her scent. “Fuck it, not like I’ve been subtle about anything else lately. Yeah, girlfriend. If you weren’t, you wouldn’t have used that shitty line to get me to keep kissing you.”

You were smiling until her last sentence, at which your brows furrowed and you frowned.

“What?” Victoria questioned.

“I thought it was a good line.”

“You’re a dork,” she laughed, an actual laugh this time. 

You stood outside with her for a couple more minutes, going back inside only when Victoria started to shake from the cold. The group had moved to the living room. You didn’t sit, but you moved to stand behind the couch, pulling a blanket that was folded over the back cushion up to wrap around Victoria’s shoulders. She tucked herself back against your side after you wrapped her up.

“So, we’re doing this ritual?” Connor asked.

“No,” you answered. “There’s nowhere here that I have a soul whateverthefuck with.”

“Not yet,” Dylan commented. “Your mom is on a plane right now, she’ll be here tonight.” 

“Jesus fucking-” you turned and walked away, back towards the guest bedroom. Victoria was hot on your heels. Stopping once you both were in the room. She closed the door and moved towards you, wrapping her arms and half the blanket around you. 

“Relax, baby,” she whispered, taking a deep breath and waiting until you wrapped your arms around her too. 

“I am relaxed. I’m fine, you know, other than the weird double moon thing in the daylight hours, Dylan going behind my back to my mom, my mom apparently flying out here right now and giving her soul for mine, me dying and having to be brought back somehow, and this weird, truce thing that we now have with the twins after they literally just stabbed me in a parking lot.” You took a deep breath. “Everything is fine though. I’m fine. Never been more calm.” 

Victoria smiled and buried her face into your neck, nuzzling further in. Her skin was still cold but you didn’t mind it. It felt nice in a way. 

_ What the fuck am I gonna do now?  _ You thought, over and over as you stood in the middle of the room holding a girl that did a complete one-eighty on you in the best way. You didn’t want to say the hard thing, that this was going to end with either you or your mom dying. No matter what happened, you knew one thing for sure: nothing would ever be the same after it was over.


	13. Reinforcements

Three days left. 

To say you were stressed was an understatement. Your mother got to town the night after you were attacked and you still hadn’t talked to her. She was staying at Dylan’s house and you were making a genuine effort to stay in your dorm, the only person you let see you was Victoria. The twins had calmed down a little and it was an uneasy alliance with them at best but they still looked at you like they were waiting for the perfect chance to finish what they started in the parking lot, like they wouldn’t have the chance when the ritual was performed. 

It was a simple ritual that had to happen and it involved destroying the totem, the only problem being your mother was going to die for it and you didn’t have a strong enough pack to actually do it. There were only five of you, six including your mom, and the ritual called for the strength of ten wolves. You’d called the Diaz family when you got back to campus and though Esteban was reluctant, both he and his oldest son traveled south to join forces. Daniel was too young and too inexperienced and Esteban wouldn’t risk him getting hurt, but Sean all but demanded to come. The only thing you hated more than knowing you and your mom had to die in order for this to work was that other people might die too. 

“I want to be there,” Victoria whined from where she sat at your desk. You were sitting on the couch in your dorm room, a guitar resting on your lap, fingers lazily plucking at the strings.

“I don’t care. None of us knows what’s gonna happen when we do it and if watching me get stabbed in the stomach scared you as much as it did, I don’t think you’re going to want to watch me get stabbed in the heart,” you shot back. The argument had been going on for hours. Victoria wanted to be there for support and you wanted her to not be there to make sure she was safe in case anything went wrong. The plan was to do the ritual the day before the seven days were up and if it didn’t work, the remaining pack members would try to get as many people to safety as they could before the storm hit. 

Victoria fumed where she sat, crossing her arms over her chest. She was wearing one of your hoodies and the sleeves were a little too long, covering the length of half of her hands. You would’ve said she looked cute except you didn’t really feel like being yelled at for trying to change the subject. “I can’t just sit in my dorm when I know what you’re doing with no one to talk to about it.” 

“Victoria,” you paused, looking over at her and setting the guitar aside. “Come here.”

She listened, albeit hesitantly. It took her a good half a minute to stand and make the few steps over to you, letting herself be pulled down into your lap when you reached for her. “You don’t want to be there. You don’t want to watch me be killed, even if you know I’ll come back. Which you don’t, by the way. We don’t know if any of this is going to work. We don’t have enough wolves for it and none of us know how the soul connection works other than I die and somehow, she replaces my soul with hers.”

Victoria curled against you, sliding her arms around your middle and nuzzling her face into the crook of your neck. You noticed that seemed to be her favorite position. “Yeah, but I don’t want to just wait around and wait for you to knock on my door either because what if you don’t and I never know until the storm hits?”

You kept quiet, unsure of how to answer. 

“How do you seem so calm about this?” She asked when you didn’t answer her previous question. “Your mom is ready to die for you and it’s like you’re not even bothered.”

“I’m kind of past the point of freaking out and I’m just in a state of plausible deniability,” you paused, folding your hands against the small of the blonde’s back, squeezing your arms around her. “There’s this thing that alpha’s can do. When we phase, the entire pack is connected and we can hear each other’s thoughts but I can open channels with specific people even if I don’t phase. We’ve already talked. I know why she’s doing it and there’s no changing her mind. 

“She thinks she has to do this for lying to me about the whole thing but I still don’t know how the fix-it for lying is making your only kid an orphan, essentially. The last thing I want to do is have to bury her too.”

Victoria squeezed you tighter, relaxing to let her weight anchor you. 

“I don’t know. It doesn’t seem real. Maybe that’s why I seem calm. You probably won’t want to be around me if it works though. I don’t think I’m gonna be very put together if I wake up and she doesn’t,” you whispered the last sentence, sorrow hanging off every word. You wanted to say that you weren’t calm, that you were avoiding your mom because you wanted to stay angry at her so that if it did work and she did die, maybe it wouldn’t hurt so bad. You wanted to say that the reason you cut the rest of the pack off after you left Dylan’s was so they wouldn’t be able to tell by your scent because they would ask and you didn’t even know where to start. It was easier with Victoria, even if she kept bringing it up. She couldn’t read your emotions or hear your thoughts and part of you felt like you were lying to her and another part felt like you were lying to yourself. 

“Relax,” Victoria instructed, pressing a light kiss to the skin of your neck. 

“What?”

One of her hands moved and went to your chest, resting over your heart. “Just because I’m not a wolf doesn’t mean I don’t notice things,” she explained, her thumb sweeping in back and forth motions to help calm you. You didn’t tell her that her scent was enough to stem your anger or fear or anything; that the only time you forgot about everything was when she kissed you. She didn’t know that her presence was enough to keep you grounded.  _ Maybe it wouldn’t be a terrible idea to have her there,  _ you thought, only for a split-second. Of course it was a terrible idea, but she would keep you calm for the duration of it. 

“I’m still not letting you come,” you mumbled, twisting your neck to lay your head against hers. You could use a nap. It wasn’t like the world was falling apart or anything.

“What time are you doing it?” 

“I don’t know,” you answered, taking a deep breath. “Is it bad that I just want to run? I don’t want to deal with it anymore. Being a wolf, being an alpha, having a pack, dealing with all this bullshit that comes with it. Is it bad that if I could, I’d take you and just run away?”

Victoria laughed softly, her hand moving from your chest to the back of your neck, fingers tapping against your skin. “Is it bad that I want you to do that?” She counted and you could hear the smile she wore. 

“I wish I could.”

“I know.”

* * *

“Okay, so, we have everything we need. You’re gonna have to phase though,” Reed paused, looking over at you. “That’s when Connor is gonna do his thing.”

“You mean stab me in the heart.”

“Yes, that is what I mean.”

You turned to face Connor, clicking your teeth together. “Hope you have good aim.”

“I never miss,” he threw back, both of you chuckling from the interaction.

Everyone was gathered in Dylan’s living room, spread out on various surfaces. Everyone was on edge with the twins there but as uneasy as it was, it wasn’t exactly terrible either. Nobody had attacked each other yet. You were in one of the recliners with Victoria curled up in your lap. 

“Anyway, we have the rest of today and however long of tomorrow you want before we do it but if you want us to have time in case it doesn’t work, we have to do it tomorrow,” Reed explained. 

“Tomorrow night then,” you answered. “At sundown.”

Nobody spoke up to suggest something else so you stood, sliding Victoria back to her feet before grabbing her hand and pulling her out of the house. You didn’t really want to spend the rest of the day around anyone. 

“That was quick,” the blonde commented as you pulled her towards your car. She let go of your hand to slip back into the jacket she was wearing. It wasn’t snowing anymore but it was borderline freezing out and you couldn’t tell if that was normal or if it was a bad werewolf juju thing. 

“Yeah,” you mumbled, getting into the car and starting it, grimacing when the heater started blowing air instantly. You had a flannel on even though you didn’t need it and Victoria took your unoccupied arm when she slid into the passenger seat, using it to get warmer.

“You know,” she started. “You’re like my own personal space heater.”

That got a laugh out of you. “Great. Make sure to put that on my gravestone.”

“Too soon.”

* * *

You didn’t go back to the dorms. Your plan was to avoid everyone you possibly could. Victoria didn’t pester you about where you were taking her, choosing to stay silent and stare at the window with your hand holding hers. She didn’t move until the car stopped by the beach. You weren’t planning to get out and the water closest to the store had a thin layer of ice on it but you could still see the far out waves where the water was too deep to swim in. You put the car in park and sat back, trying to will yourself to become one with the seat you were in.

“You okay?” Victoria asked and you could tell she didn’t need an answer.

“I feel like the world’s shittiest daughter,” you said, leaning your head back. “I just told everyone that I’m planning to die tomorrow at sundown and taking my mother with me and I didn’t even stay with her.”

“That doesn’t make you a bad daughter.”

“Yes, it does. I should want to spend the little time I have left with her glued to her side…” 

“But you’re still trying to avoid it,” Victoria answered for you.

“Yeah, I’m still hoping Reed finds something else in that book that doesn’t involve anyone dying, even just for a short time.”

Victoria didn’t say anything for a while but eventually she unbuckled her seatbelt and crawled between the seats into the back, reaching up and twisting the back of your shirt in her hand to prompt you to do the same, which you did after a beat. 

The second you fell into the backseat, Victoria was in your lap, kissing you again like it was the last chance she would ever get to kiss you, which in a way, you guessed it was. 

“What was that for?” you asked when she finally pulled back for air. 

“In case it doesn’t work,” you whispered against your lips before drawing you in again, taking the collar of your shirt readily in hand, pulling at it to keep you from pulling away, not that you would’ve even if she hadn’t been doing that. 

When you flinched when you felt her hands slip under your shirt, it wasn’t because they were cold and when she moved them away to shed her jacket, the breath you drew in wasn’t particularly because you were struggling to breathe. And it didn’t go unnoticed, the sharp intake of air Victoria took when your lips parted when you turned and dropped her on the seat, awkwardly perching yourself above her. You knew your eyes were glowing from the way she looked at you, but there was love in her eyes instead of fear, tenderness in her fingertips where they traced a path across your face, stopping under your eyes, and maybe for the first time since your relationship with her changed, you realized what it all meant. 

It hit you like a brick wall when you realized it, because all the sudden you just  _ knew.  _

“Victoria,” you whispered, only for her to swallow your words with another kiss.

“I know,” she smiled into the kiss, one of her hands slipping around your neck to pull you down. She didn’t know. Not really. Nobody did but you, and you didn’t even know it ten seconds before. You broke the kiss, supporting your weight with one hand while moving the other to trace the side of Victoria’s face, dragging your thumb across the slope of where her jaw faded into her neck. Your eyes were still blue, still glowing, their light raging. That was the extent of your phase, at least the physical part.

You were staring at her, but you weren’t really seeing her. A thousand different images flooded your sight, one after the other like a slideshow of every want you now had. Victoria said your name, brows furrowing in a question and the only response you gave was a harsh kiss that she returned with equal enthusiasm. You could explain it later. You never really were one for multitasking and the only thing you were concerned about right then was the writhing blonde beneath you.

* * *

It was dark by the time you got back to Blackwell with Victoria and the snow had started falling again. Her scent calmed you even more than it did before, her presence made you feel complete for the first time, she kept you anchored in a way you couldn’t describe. 

You walked with her, hand in hand, across the campus towards the dorms at a slow pace, purposely taking smaller steps just so you could watch the snow melt in her hair. It made her look like she was glowing. She was a step ahead of you, being dramatic about how slow you were going. Eventually she turned around, stopping and letting you walk into her. Her arms slid around your middle, under the flannel you wore. “You know, I wouldn’t go back and change anything, but that backseat really is not comfortable.”

You snorted, leaning forward to plant a kiss on her forehead. “You started it.” 

“You weren’t exactly trying to stop it,” she shot back, taking a step back and grasping both of your hands, walking backwards and dragging you along. 

“Did you want me to?” The look she gave you was enough of an answer and a smile blossomed on your lips. “Didn’t think so.”

“Shut up,” she groaned, turning and walking forward again, opting to hold just one of your hands. 

You walked at a normal pace for the rest of the trip, stopping only once because Victoria slipped on a patch of ice and you had to keep her from taking a dive into the pavement. There were more students on campus now but Victoria never let go of your hand, even when her non-supernatural groupies stopped in front of her the second you both got inside the dormitory. To say they looked not so thrilled was an understatement. Courtney was giving you her best death glare and Taylor was trying to hide a knowing smile. 

“Want to explain this?” Courtney asked, lifting a hand to gesture to you. 

“Not really,” Victoria answered, pulling you around the pair and down the hall, past your room and into hers. 

“Well, that was not what I was expecting you to say,” you commented when she closed the door to her room. You hadn’t been in there before so you took a minute to look around and take it in and you couldn’t deny that being surrounded by her scent made you feel at home there.

There was a knock at the door a few seconds later and you turned to watch Victoria as she took her jacket off and slid out of her boots. “Wasn’t what they were expecting either,” she said with a grin before heading for the door. She opened it to find Taylor on the other side, smiling like a proud parent. “Don’t look at me like that, Tay.” 

“Like what?” Taylor asked, pushing her way into the room. “Like you’ll finally admit to it now? Like I was right?”

“Wait, wait, wait. What are we talking about?” You asked, moving to sit on the couch.

“Vic’s been in love with you since you got here,” Taylor answered casually, making your heart skip a beat and eyes flicker over to the blonde, whose face was turning deeper shades of red by the second. 

“Taylor!” She whisper-screamed, kicking the door shut with her foot before reaching for her friend and pinching her arm. 

“Ow!” Taylor rubbed at the spot on her arm. “Come on, Vic. Just admit I was right about-” She cut herself off when Victoria stared her down. 

“About what?” You asked, relaxing into the cushions and resting your arm across the back of the couch. 

Victoria glared at you next, walking over and throwing herself down next to you. “Nothing. Taylor doesn’t know what she’s talking about.”

“Yes, I do,” watching the interaction made you grin, thoroughly entertained by an embarrassed Victoria. “You’re just mad because I was right about you wanting the fuck the new girl.” 

You arched your neck to stare at the blonde beside you, eyebrows raised with a smirk on your lips. Victoria lifted a hand and pushed your face away, groaning loudly. “What god did I piss off to deserve this?” She asked, tipping her head back to stare at the ceiling. You and Taylor started laughing and you leaned over again to press a kiss to Victoria’s cheek. 

“Relax, babe. Not like she’s anything I didn’t already know,” that got Victoria to look at you and you gave her a shrug, mouthing the word ‘wolf’ to her. Her eyes narrowed in response and now she pinched your arm. 

“You both suck, you know that?” 

“No, I suck. Pretty sure your girlfriend licks,” Taylor shot back, waiting until Victoria turned to glare at her before bolting for the door when Victoria abruptly stood, only to sit back down when Taylor slammed the door behind her. 

“Sorry about her.”

“It’s fine,” you mumbled, waiting until she settled in next to you to pull her closer against your side. “And I couldn’t tell, by the way. That was a joke. I can barely notice anyone’s scent in those fucking hallways. Half the student body is horny on a daily basis and fuck, that stench makes me want to cut my nose off sometimes.” Victoria smiled at that, tilting her head to look at you. “Hey, there’s that smile,” you commented, lifting a hand to poke her cheek. 

“Fuck off,” she groaned, batting your hand away. She scooted down the length of the couch, turning to lay her head in your lap, sliding her hands under your shirt. “You’re warm.”

“I’m your own personal little space heater, remember?” 

“Never forgot,” she countered, smiling up at you. “I’m gonna nap. Turns out sex with a werewolf takes a lot of energy.” 

“Please, don’t say it like that,” you begged, sliding out from underneath her head to stand, smiling at her futile attempts to keep you from doing what you did. Her complaints died when you bent down and slid an arm under her legs and the other under her back, lifting her up. You carried her to the bed, gently laying her down before kicking your shoes off and climbing in next to her, wrapping your arms around her when she tucked herself against your chest. You used your foot to pull the blanket up, cocooning both of you. “Better?”

“Better,” Victoria’s eyes were already closing as she held onto you tighter, her hands again slipping under your shirt to press against your back. She hummed her approval at the heat she felt, taking a deep breath as she relaxed against you. 

You laid awake for a few minutes after Victoria succumbed to sleep, just taking the time to enjoy holding her and thinking about what it meant now that you knew you imprinted, thinking about how you would explain it to her. That’s all you could think about until your phone vibrated in your pocket. It took a minute to fish it out between trying to unglue your girlfriend from you and trying not to wake said girlfriend up.

**[Reed. 9:43PM]:** everythings set up and everyones on board with the plan, we’ll all be there tomorrow at sundown

**[Me. 9:46PM]:** got it. try not to act weird if ur on campus, dnt draw any attention 

You turned and dropped the phone on the nightstand, ignoring the last buzz and going back to focus on Victoria. You got comfortable again, this time pressing your lips to the crown of her head for a long second. 

“I don’t know what’s gonna happen tomorrow,” you whispered, even though Victoria was sleeping and no one else was there to hear you. “I don’t know if it’s gonna work, and I don’t think I’m gonna like either outcome. You’re gonna have to take care of me if it works, you know. I’m not gonna be able to deal with it on my own. I don’t even know how I’m gonna explain imprinting to you, much less that I imprinted on you.” You paused again, sighing and letting your eyes close. “I don’t know a lot of things, but I know I love you, Victoria.” Your arms tightened around her, your protective instinct flaring for no other reason than the love you had for her. That’s how you fell asleep, holding the sleeping blonde and thinking about what a terrible daughter it made you that you were hoping the ritual worked. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I drew the imprinting inspiration from Twilight, though I did change it a bit. I wanted there to be an internal conversation the Reader was having with herself about why she grew attached to Victoria so quickly, so I changed the imprint system, if that’s what I’m calling it, to where it doesn’t just happen the moment the Reader makes eye contact with Victoria, but when she first realizes that she’s fallen in love. I know, it’s different and weird, if you don’t like it, I’m sorry. I just think the whole imprinting at first sight thing is a little backwards if you’ve never met the person before. I wanted the system of imprinting to have a base to grow on. A werewolf’s “true love” if you will. They just have to have actual feelings first. 
> 
> As always, questions, comments, and criticism is appreciated! For those of you reading that that are also waiting on news about Code Blue, I am working on the next chapter still and will start posting for that story again once Sundown is finished, because I do want some time to build up some chapters for the next installment of the Desolate series. :) I promise, I haven’t forgotten about Code Blue, I just don’t have any finite plans for it. I’m unsure of how long it’ll be because I have a lot of story to tell, but I am playing with the idea of telling it in seasons. Let me know if you have any ideas you want me to consider! 
> 
> Side note, I’m not confident enough to write smut, sorry, but hopefully I got the point across that they did the frick frack.


End file.
